School choice in England: evidence from national administrative data

ABSTRACT

We study school choice in England using a new dataset containing the choices of all parents seeking a school place in state secondary schools. We provide new empirical evidence to inform how the school choice market functions, including the number of choices made, whether the nearest school is the first choice and the probability of an offer from the first choice school. These indicators show that school choice is actively used by many households in England. We use the rich data available to describe how choices vary by pupil, school and neighbourhood characteristics and how school choice is used differently by different groups and in different parts of the country. For the first time, we are able to present national data on how the school choices made by parents vary according to pupils’ ethnic group and across urban and rural areas. We show, contrary to some existing literature that has relied on smaller and less representative samples of parents and pupils, that school choices do not vary significantly by social background. We show that parents pro-actively use the choice system and present new evidence on the extent to which the current school admissions criteria that prioritise distance penalise poorer families.

KEYWORDS:

• School admissions
• education inequality
• school choice
• pupil achievement

Acknowledgments

The National Pupil Database and school choice data were provided by the Department for Education. The Department for Education do not accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the National Pupil Database.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This is explicitly intended not as a measure of general ability, but a specific aptitude such as music, sport or maths for example.

2. Prior to 2007, different Local Authorities in England used either a first preference first or an equal preference allocation mechanism. The first preference first system was outlawed in the 2007 admissions code since it prioritizes students based on the rank order of parents’ choices.

3. The possibility to list more choices may mitigate this to some extent and allow more ‘ambitious’ choices in terms of school academic quality, which we explore.

4. The latest admissions code (2014) is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/389388/School_Admissions_Code_2014_-_19_Dec.pdf.

5. Department for Education (2017)https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/640212/SFR44_2017_Appeals_Text.pdf.

6. The authors are happy to provide further details and original application forms on request but note that the NPD application process was reformed in June 2018 as so these are less relevant.

7. The family’s postcode is taken from the NPD – at the closest point to when the choice was made. If this is not available, the postcode recorded in secondary school is used.

8. Ethnic group is derived from the National Pupil Database, based on minor ethnic group classification.

9. http://standards.esd.org.uk/?uri=metricType%2F382&tab=details .

10. This information was used for example by Allen, Burgess and McKenna (2013) in modelling the outcome of the Brighton and Hove school lottery.

11. In most areas of the country households can make a maximum of three choices. Exceptions are London (Pan-London co-ordinated admissions) and the surrounding area, Manchester and surrounding LAs, and Birmingham (among others). See the map in Appendix Figure 1.

12. This simple regression suggests that for households eligible for free school meals there is not a significant positive relationship between the quality of first choice school and number of choices permitted. This suggests that increasing the number of choices would not necessarily reduce inequality in access to good schools, but a more comprehensive analysis is required for such a conclusion.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Simon Burgess

Simon Burgess is a Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol. He was Director of the DFE-funded Research Centre CUBEC 2010 – 2014, and Director of the ESRC-funded Research Centre CMPO 2004 – 2014.

Ellen Greaves

Ellen Greaves is a PhD student at the University of Bristol, formally a Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Ellen’s current research focuses on school choice and education policy. This explores the effects of school choice on social and ethnic segregation across schools, simulating how this would change under alternative admissions criteria for schools that move away from the typical distance based criteria, accounting for residential preferences. Ellen’s other research focusses on teachers and school quality in England. Work on teachers includes the costs and benefits of different initial teacher training routes and the effect of performance related pay on the variation in pay in England. Work on school quality includes the causes and consequences of the ‘London Effect’, the impact of children’s background on attainment, including their month of birth, and a number of evaluations to determine whether specific programmes can increase school attainment.

Anna Vignoles

Anna Vignoles is Professor of Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, a member of the ESRC Council and a trustee of the Nuffield Foundation. Anna has extensive experience of using large scale administrative data to study factors relating to pupil achievement and students’ outcomes from education.