Social Mobility and Higher Education: Are grammar schools the answer?

(2020) - Edited John Furlong, Ingrid Lunt

Journal: hepi Occasional Paper 22
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Tags:: #paper #NCDS #Mobility #SchoolType #SocialClass #Attainment
Cite Key:: [@Furlong2020]

Abstract

Despite the small number of pupils involved, the ‘grammar school question’ is still fiercely debated among academics and politicians. Proponents of state-funded selective schooling invariably claim it enhances social mobility by providing the opportunity for bright children from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds to access a high-quality secondary education alongside other similarly high-ability children, with positive impacts on educational attainment and subsequent life trajectories. Arguments against the system include its apparently divisive nature, the unfairness of the 11+ examination and, above all, evidence that suggests the system depresses overall educational achievement within a general catchment area and has a particularly negative effect on the poorest children in that area.

Notes

“there was no statistically significant advantage in the chances of accessing an ‘elite’ university for students from grammar schools.” (Furlong and Lunt, 2020, p. 13)