1. Rebecca Allen and Anna Vignoles Institute of Education, University of London r.allen@ioe.ac.uk and a.vignoles@ioe.ac.uk Presentation to Bristol Choice Conference, 9 th June 2009 Can school competition improve standards? The case of faith schools in England

2. 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? 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?

3. 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 status 2. Pupil home postcode (nearest c.11 houses) – allows matching of census data to provide estimates of socio-economic background (IMD and ACORN)

4. Faith schools in the state sector State-funded Religious bodies control governing bodies Control pupil admissions State-funded Religious bodies control governing bodies Control pupil admissions

5. Who chooses faith schools? Typical admissions policy at a faith school prioritises: 1. own denomination 2. related denominations 3. other religions 4. 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

6. Models of school choice CHOICE Household with childs ability and income Household non-schooling consumption depends on take-home pay less housing interest payments Childs final educational attainment depends on peer group and initial ability

7. Model of religious school choice CHOICE Home-school travel Idiosyncratic preference for a location Household religious characteristics Utility from schools religious characteristics Disutility from demonstrating schools religious admissions requirements

8. 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

9. 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

10. Proportion of faith school places in the area Pupil achievement at GCSE Religious families Historical religious population Secular school quality COMPETITION Estimation problem

11. Pupil-level achievement models COMPETITION GCSE exam z-scores Area controls, including religious composition Pupil controls, including prior attainment

12. Additional specifications COMPETITION Attending a religious school Within-area differences Non-symmetrical responses Other school controls

13. Instrumenting Catholic school supply COMPETITION

14. Main results – faith schools COMPETITION

15. Main results – Catholic schools COMPETITION

16. Sorting in local competition spaces SORTING

17. Place in local schooling hierarchy SORTING Local ranking of school by proportion of top ability pupils Faith schools Secular schools

18. Levels of school stratification SORTING

19. 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