Rebecca Allen and Anna VignolesInstitute of Education, University of [email protected] and [email protected]
Presentation to Bristol Choice Conference, 9th June 2009
Can school competition improve standards?
The case of faith schools in England
Motivation for paper
Current policy trends to encourage school autonomy and parental choice
Over 100 years of school choice in England due to faith schools
Research Questions:1.Is there evidence that choice and competition for pupils takes place between faith and secular schools?2.Does competition from faith schools raise pupil achievement across all schools in an area?3.Does the presence of faith schools lead to pupil sorting in the local schooling market?
English Schools Data
Annual administrative records on pupils in state sector tell us:1. Key individual characteristics – e.g. sex, ethnicity, mother
tongue, special needs status, free school meals status2. Pupil home postcode (nearest c.11 houses) – allows
matching of census data to provide estimates of socio-economic background (IMD and ACORN)
Faith schools in the state sector
• State-funded
• Religious bodies control governing bodies
• Control pupil admissions
Who chooses faith schools?
Typical admissions policy at a faith school prioritises:1. own denomination2. related denominations3. other religions4. non-religious families based on proximity
Cannot clearly identify ‘religious’ families who choose Religious self-identification by families tends not to be strong Church-going is uncommon in England Demonstration of religious adherence may not be onerous Families can adjust church-going behaviour to satisfy
requirements
CHOICE
Models of school choice CHOICE
Household with child’s ability and
income
Household non-schooling consumption depends on
take-home pay less housing interest
payments
Child’s final educational
attainment depends on peer group and
initial ability
Model of religious school choice CHOICE
Home-school travel Idiosyncratic
preference for a location
Household religious
characteristics
Utility from school’s religious
characteristics
Disutility from demonstrating school’s
religious admissions requirements
Choice between sectors is active
1. Faith schools recruit from wide geographical areas
2. Transitions between faith and secular schools take place at age 11
3. Not all faith school attendees are from religious families
CHOICE
How schools compete
1. Effort directed at improving test scores: Encouraging academic ethos Monitoring teachers’ class test scores Altering teacher recruitment strategy Directing effort at certain ‘high reward’ pupils
2. Improving quality of peer intake Improving quality of applicants to school Altering published admissions criteria Altering the application of admissions criteria
COMPETITION
Proportion of faith school places in the
area
Pupil achievemen
t at GCSE
Religious families
Historical religious
population
Secular school quality
COMPETITIONEstimation problem
Pupil-level achievement models COMPETITION
GCSE exam z-scores
Area controls, including religious
compositionPupil controls, including prior
attainment
Additional specifications COMPETITION
Attending a religious school
Within-area differences Non-
symmetrical responses
Other school controls
Instrumenting Catholic school supplyCOMPETITION
Main results – faith schools COMPETITION
Main results – Catholic schools COMPETITION
Sorting in local competition spacesSORTING
Place in local schooling hierarchy SORTING
Local ranking of school by proportion of top ability pupils
Faith schoolsSecular schools
Levels of school stratification SORTING
Conclusions
1. Faith schools are associated with more stratified local schooling markets
Cream-skimming Parental choice strategies
2. No evidence that faith schools improve (or damage) area-wide academic achievement
Is choice and competition genuine? Schools unable to respond to threat Competition muted by sorting