Grammar school pupils do not gain any advantage over children who
do not attend a grammar school by age 14, according to a new
study from UCL.
In the first study of its kind, researchers from the UCL
Institute of Education (IOE) looked at a range of social and
emotional outcomes, including young people's engagement and
well-being at school, their aspirations for the future, in
addition to educational attainment levels, to determine the
benefits of attending a grammar school. The study was funded
by the Nuffield Foundation.
After comparing how grammar and non-grammar school pupils faired
across a range of cognitive, social and emotional outcomes,
researchers found attending a grammar school had no positive
impact upon teenagers' attitudes towards schools, self-esteem,
future aspirations or their English vocabulary.
"Our findings suggest that the money the government is planning
to spend on grammar school expansion is unlikely to bring
benefits for young people. Even those children who are likely to
fill these new places are unlikely to be happier, more engaged at
school or have higher levels of academic achievement by the end
of Year 9,” said lead author of the study, Professor John Jerrim
(IOE).
Co-author, Sam Sims (IOE) added, “Schools across the country are
already hard-pressed financially. Our research suggests that the
government would be better off directing their money towards
areas of existing need, rather than expanding grammar schools."
The paper analysed data from 883 children in England and 733
children in Northern Ireland from the Millennium Cohort Study
(MCS) who had similar academic achievements at primary school and
came from families with similar incomes and education levels.
To assess cognitive outcomes, the researchers looked at the
results of tests children had taken in English, Mathematics,
verbal and non-verbal reasoning at ages 3, 5, 7 and 11 as well as
a vocabulary test at age 14. Children’s social and emotional
outcomes were based on answers given on a series of
questionnaires at ages 11 and 14 about mental health, engagement
at school, well-being and interaction with peers.
Josh Hillman, Director of Education at the Nuffield Foundation
added, “These findings are important because they show for the
first time the impact of attending grammar schools on a wide
range of outcomes, such as young people’s self-confidence,
academic self-esteem and aspirations for the future. The evidence
shows that at age 14, there is no benefit to young people of
attending grammar school in these respects.
“In addition, we know from previous evidence from this study that
the use of private tutoring heavily skews access to grammar
schools in favour of wealthier families, dispelling the myth that
they increase social mobility. In light of this evidence, it is
increasingly difficult to understand the government’s rationale
for spending money on expanding selective education rather than
on improving education for all young people.”
The researchers will be continuing to investigate socio-emotional
outcomes for children in grammar and non-grammar school areas and
build on recent findings showing that grammar schools are no
better or worse than non-selective state schools in terms of
attainment, but can be damaging to social mobility.*
Notes to editors
* https://johnjerrim.com/papers/ and https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01425692.2018.1443432
John Jerrim and Sam Sims, 'The association between attending a
grammar school and children's socio-emotional outcomes. New
evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study' is the latest paper to
be published by the UCL IOE's Department of Quantitative Social
Science. It will be available at www.johnjerrim.com/papers from
00:01 at 23 May 2018.
The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) is a
multi-disciplinary research project following the lives of around
19,000 children born in the UK in 2000-01. It is the most recent
of Britain’s world-renowned national longitudinal birth cohort
studies. The study has been tracking the Millennium children
through their early childhood years and plans to follow them into
adulthood.
