Do academically selective school systems strengthen the link between students’ family backgrounds and the likelihood of higher education participation?

Binwei Lu, Binru Dai, Beng Huat See, Xin Shao, Xianan Hu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

Proponents of academic selection argue that academic selection helps children from disadvantaged backgrounds have better lifelong outcomes. However, the evidence needs to be clarified since selections by performance could be a proxy for selection by socioeconomic class. Based on the unique situation in England, where both selective and non-selective systems coexist, we evaluate whether students from selective schools are more likely to continue higher education than those in non-selective schools and whether the link between students’ family backgrounds and their likelihood of higher education participation is stronger under a selective system. The results show that attending selective schools is associated with some post-18 advantages for pupils who stayed until the end of Key Stage 5, but brings disadvantages for those who left at earlier stages, even if we look at the upper bound of the selective school effect. Meanwhile, the link between students’ family backgrounds and future opportunities is consistently stronger under the selective system.

Original languageEnglish
JournalEducational Review
Early online date22 Jan 2024
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 22 Jan 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

  • Academic selection
  • educational equity
  • family background
  • grammar schools
  • social mobility

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education

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