Rebecca Allen and Anna VignolesInstitute of Education, University of Londonr.allen@ioe.ac.uk and a.vignoles@ioe.ac.uk

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