05 January 2007
The best-rated secondary schools are still recruiting too many of the most able pupils in spite of government efforts to narrow the gap, research for the Department for Education and Skills has found.
Researchers from the London School of Economics, in their study Are schools drifting apart? published by the DfES on January 2, found there is still a 30 percentile difference in the average ability of pupils entering the best and worst state secondary schools in England — a gap that has not changed since 1996.
The researchers concluded that geographical disparities were the likely cause of these 'large and stable' differences which, they said, were the source of parents' worries about 'inequity in school provision and of failings in the school system'.
The gap was a cause for concern because 'school intake ability does matter for pupil attainment… pupils in schools with high mean intake ability are at a real advantage over others', they added.
A spokeswoman for the DfES said: 'The department welcomes research in this important area. We are committed to tackling social segregation in schools and aim to make all categories of school more inclusive.
'Recent changes in the Education and Inspections Act and the School Admissions Code are aimed at tackling perceived social segregation and should make all categories of school more inclusive in future.'
The research found that schools which were allowed to select pupils on the basis of religious ethos or aptitude had become more exclusive since 1996. Yet this had not led to identifiable 'cream-skimming' of the most able pupils from other non-selective state schools.
The researchers suggested that the schools permitted to select may now be attracting more pupils previously educated in the private sector.
PFjan2007
