The effects of school membership on pupils’ educational outcomes

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Abstract
The article reports some of the major findings of a large‐scale longitudinal study of the progress and development of an age cohort of pupils during the junior years of education. The pupils attended a stratified random sample of 50 Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) primary schools during the period 1980‐84. The focus of the paper is an investigation of the existence and size of the effects of school membership upon these pupils’ progress in a variety of cognitive outcomes (reading, writing and mathematics), attainment in oracy (which was measured only on one occasion), and upon several non‐cognitive outcomes (attendance, attitudes, behaviour and self‐concept). Particular attention is paid to the identification and separation of the effects of school membership from those attributable to background factors, sex and age. For the analysis of the effects of school upon pupils’ progress in cognitive areas, initial attainment in the relevant area is controlled and acts as the baseline against which later progress is measured. The Study demonstrates the existence of substantial school effects for a wide range of outcomes, both cognitive and non‐cognitive, and permits the discussion of whether junior schools are equally effective across all outcomes. It is shown that some schools are more effective in promoting pupils’ progress and development in a broad range of outcomes than are others. Moreover, the results confirm that in determining pupils∗ progress during the junior years (taking account of initial attainment), school membership is far more influential than background factors, sex and age. (This is not to deny that the latter are strongly related to levels of initial attainment at entry to junior school.) For individual pupils, therefore, the particular school attended can make a considerable difference to future progress and development during the junior years.