{"id":38115,"date":"2017-03-08T15:45:46","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T23:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=38115"},"modified":"2017-03-08T15:45:46","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T23:45:46","slug":"grammar-schools-academic-selection-benefits-affluent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/grammar-schools-academic-selection-benefits-affluent\/","title":{"rendered":"Grammar schools: why academic selection only benefits the very affluent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"grammarclass\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With the recent news that more than \u00a3500m has been set aside<\/a> by the UK government for new free schools \u2013 many of which could well become grammar schools \u2013 the selective schooling debate is firmly back on the table.<\/p>\n

This \u00a3500m includes a one-off payment of \u00a3320m which will be allocated to help set up 140 new free schools. This comes on top of the already promised \u00a3216m which will help to rebuild and refurbish existing schools. The 140 new schools are in addition to the 500 already pledged to be created by 2020<\/a>, and will pave the way for a new generation of grammar schools.<\/p>\n

The cash boost comes as a schools white paper<\/a> will be published over the next few weeks. It will include plans to reverse the ban on new grammars. The ban has been in place for nearly 20 years, but the UK prime minister Theresa May has said it is her \u201cpersonal mission\u201d to overturn the ban and create a grammar schools<\/a> revolution.<\/p>\n

And yet despite May\u2019s championing of grammars, a lot of recent<\/a> research<\/a> has demonstrated strong inequalities in access to selective schools.<\/p>\n

Highly skewed<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the first time \u2013 through our new research \u2013 we can show the differences in the likelihood of attending a grammar school depending on your socioeconomic status<\/a> (SES). This is the most detailed measure of family circumstances available to date in administrative data.<\/p>\n

Our analysis confirms that access to grammar schools is highly skewed by a child\u2019s socioeconomic status \u2013 with the most deprived families living in grammar school areas standing only a 6% chance of attending a selective school.<\/p>\n

\"Grammar<\/a>

Grammar schools: just for the wealthy? Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>
\nFor our analysis, we adopted this SES index<\/a> which uses individual free school meal eligibility, and enriches it with very local neighbourhood measures based on the pupil\u2019s postcode.<\/p>\n

The measures include the type of neighbourhood, levels of deprivation, and the occupational structure, along with levels of education and home ownership figures. All this information is then combined to produce an index of socioeconomic status for each pupil in our data.<\/p>\n

This allows for a considerably broader measure than simply using eligibility for free school meals, which most other analyses<\/a> have used.<\/p>\n

Just for the wealthy<\/strong><\/p>\n

In our analysis, we compared how pupils from different social backgrounds fare when it comes to grammar selection. This includes the \u201cjust about managing\u201d, as well as the middle classes, and the most affluent.<\/p>\n

Our analysis shows clearly that it is mostly the very affluent that make it into grammar schools \u2013 and that there is a dramatic difference in access to selective schools depending on the pupil\u2019s background.<\/p>\n

The average chance of getting in in selective areas is below 50% for almost all families. But when you break this figure down and analyse it based on the pupil\u2019s SES \u2013 or their background \u2013 the data reveals a more complex story.<\/p>\n

We show that only the most affluent families \u2013 the top 10% by SES \u2013 have a 50% or better chance of attending a grammar. While those pupils at the very top \u2013 the 1% most affluent \u2013 have an 80% chance of attending a grammar.<\/p>\n