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

英格兰的大多数中等教育都是综合性的。然而，少数文法学校保留了基于成绩的选择。由于这些学校的学生成绩优异，一些评论家和政策制定者认为英格兰的文法学校比综合学校更有效，并建议扩大。本研究评估了就读文法学校是否与 18 岁后阶段的长期学业收益相关。它通过比较文法学校的高等教育 (HE) 参与率与非选择性领域的综合学校的参与率来实现这一点。证据表明，参加学术精英学校的假定高等教育参与好处是混合的。承认控制学校之间预先存在的差异的回归模型的局限性，这项研究揭示了估计结果的敏感性，以及选择合适的基线变量的挑战。因此，本研究需要更深入地了解学校效能的机制，并加强评估的研究设计。