ABSTRACT

Most secondary education in England is comprehensive. However, a small minority of grammar schools have retained attainment-based selection. Since students in these schools achieve high grades, some commentators and policy makers believe that England’s grammar schools are more effective than its comprehensive schools, and suggest their expansion. This study evaluates whether attending grammar schools is associated with long-term academic benefits at the post-18 stage. It does so by comparing Higher Education (HE) participation rates in grammar schools with those of comprehensive schools in non-selective areas. The evidence reveals that the assumed HE participation benefits of attending academically selective schools are mixed. Acknowledging the limitations of regression models controlling for pre-existing differences between schools, this study reveals the sensitivity of the estimation results, and the challenge of choosing appropriate baseline variables. Thus, this study calls for more thorough understandings of the mechanism of school effectiveness, and stronger research designs for evaluation.

摘要

英格兰大多数中学教育是全面的。但是，一小部分语法学校保留了基于成绩的选择。由于这些学校的学生成绩很高，一些评论员和政策制定者认为，英格兰的语法学校比综合学校更为有效，并建议扩大其规模。这项研究评估在18岁后阶段就读语法学校是否与长期学术利益相关联。通过比较语法学校与非选择性地区综合学校的高等教育入学率来做到这一点。证据表明，就读学术选拔学校所假定的高等教育参与收益是混合的。认识到控制学校之间既存差异的回归模型的局限性，这项研究揭示了估算结果的敏感性，以及选择合适的基线变量的挑战。因此，本研究要求对学校有效性的机制有更透彻的了解，并需要更强大的评估研究设计。