"Winners and losers" from selective school system

A new working paper from the UK's Institute of Education (IoE) investigates the impact of the UK's selective grammar school system on earnings inequality. This selective education system was commonly used in England from the 1940s to the 1970s, with children assigned to a school based on their performance on the "11+" exam. Children who passed the exam went to grammar school, and those who failed went to a secondary modern school. Although the comprehensive system now dominates (with school placements on the basis of catchment area) the value of selective systems remains a policy issue. 

The authors used data from the Understanding Society longitudinal panel study, which collected information from people aged 16+ in approximately 40,000 households in the UK beginning in 2009. They found that the wage distribution for individuals who grew up in selective schooling areas is quantitatively and statistically significantly more unequal, with a higher earnings at the top and lower earnings at the lower end of the distribution. 

The additional difference in earnings between the 90th and 10th percentiles in selective systems accounts for 14% of the total earnings gap, increasing to 18% when the authors controlled for a range of background and personal characteristics. The authors suggest that this inequality may be the result of grammar schools attracting the most effective teachers.

The raw mean and variance statistics for the selective versus non-selective areas showed that overall, average hourly earnings in 2009-2012 were very similar across the two groups (£8.61 versus £8.59). 

Johns Hopkins University 

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