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A very small number of young people enter youth custody between age 16 and 18 (about 4 in 1000 males), yet the consequences are severe. They spend an average of 7 months in youth custody and such incarceration has been related to negative outcomes in the longer term even if they can establish themselves in the labour market. In this paper, we evaluate whether there is a relationship between GCSE qualifications in English and maths and the probability of youth custody using administrative data in England. We are hindered in this because the majority of young people who end up in youth custody are not entered or fail their GCSEs in these subjects. Although regression results are consistent with educational achievement being a factor in why people end up in youth custody, they strongly suggest that both non-entry/low achievement and youth custody are correlated with severe vulnerabilities which are partially picked up by the explanatory variables available in administrative data (in particular indicators for special needs, disadvantage and being from some ethnic minority groups). Another interesting insight is that for many, problems only emerge (or at least become evident) in early or middle adolescence. [This paper forms part of a larger project funded by the Nuffield Foundation "Youth custody: Educational influences and labour market consequences."]

This paper provides new evidence on educational inequality and reviews the literature on the causes and consequences of unequal education. We document large achievement gaps between children from different socio-economic backgrounds, show how patterns of educational inequality vary across countries, time, and generations, and establish a link between educational inequality and social mobility. We interpret this evidence from the perspective of economic models of skill acquisition and investment in human capital. The models account for different channels underlying unequal education and highlight how endogenous responses in parents' and children's educational investments generate a close link between economic inequality and educational inequality. Given concerns over the extended school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, we also summarize early evidence on the impact of the pandemic on children's education and on possible long-run repercussions for educational inequality.

Calls are intensifying for workforce reskilling and a re-engineering of education and training to meet the demands of the future. Current policy in England focuses on technical, digital and green economy skills, underpinned by strong literacy and numeracy and a knowledge-rich school curriculum. National Foundation for Educational Research's Nuffield-funded research study, "The Skills Imperative 2035: Essential skills for tomorrow's workforce" investigates: (1) which essential employment skills will be most needed in 2035; (2) what will their likely supply be and where will the gaps be; (3) which occupations and workers are most at risk of not having these skills; (4) which skills will affected workers need to develop to transition into new employment opportunities; and (5) the role of educators and employers in helping to prepare young people and workers for the future labour market. This first report, a review drawing on a wide-ranging and growing evidence base, sets the scene for the wider research study by bringing together what the literature suggests about: (1) what the world of work will look like in 2035; and (2) which essential employment skills will be in demand and how what should be done to prepare.

Countries and cities around the world increasingly rely on centralized systems to assign students to schools. Two algorithms, deferred acceptance (DA) and immediate acceptance (IA), are widespread. The latter is often criticized for harming disadvantaged families who fail to get access to popular schools. This paper investigates the effect of the national ban of the IA mechanism in England in 2008. Before the ban, 49 English local authorities used DA and 16 used IA. All IA local authorities switched to DA afterwards, giving rise to a cross-market difference-in-differences research design. Our results show that the elimination of IA reduces measures of school quality for low-SES students more than high-SES students. After the ban, low-SES students attend schools with lower value-added and more disadvantaged and low-achieving peers. This effect is primarily driven by a decrease in low-SES admissions at selective schools. Our findings point to an unintended consequence of the IA to DA transition: by encouraging high-SES parents to report their preferences truthfully, DA increases competition for top schools, which crowds out low-SES students.

The feedback between vocational education and training (VET) and the labour market can provide important input for the review and renewal of qualifications. A feedback loop that is based on learning outcomes helps provide deeper insights into what is required on the labour market, what is offered in training provisions and assessed at the end of a learning programme. The aim of this study is to contribute to strengthening the quality and relevance of qualifications and completing the feedback loop between education and the labour market. It examines methods of collecting data on the match/mismatch between qualifications and labour market requirements, including analysis of how achieved learning outcomes are applied and perceived in the labour market (for example methods of collecting the experience of employers with holders of these qualifications). This report addresses the following two questions: (1) which data already exist in the countries, providing insight into the relevance of qualifications to employees, employers and other labour market stakeholders?; and (2) how can survey methodology be designed to systematically capture the experiences and appreciations of employers as regards the content and profile of qualifications? To what extent, based on limited testing, can scalability of the methodology be achieved?

The concept of education for sustainable development (ESD) has emerged as one of the important educational themes in the past two decades. Advocates of ESD believe that ESD can lead to socio-economic and environmental justice. However, there is lack of research on the influence of teacher education programme on student teachers' conceptions of ESD and their future commitment for ESD. This timely, international research aimed at understanding student teachers' conceptions of ESD, emphasis on ESD in teacher education programmes as perceived by student teachers, the importance the student teachers perceive of sustainable development as part of their future teaching, and the ways they intend to engage with ESD in future. [This report was funded by the UCL Global Engagement Fund.]

England currently faces a shortage of teachers, in part due to declining retention. Research suggests that one important influence on teachers' decisions about whether to leave teaching is the quality of working conditions in their school. Understanding which specific aspects of working conditions have the strongest relationship with retention could therefore help improve the supply of teachers. This report uses data collected from a large sample of teachers in the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018, linked to data from the School Workforce Census (SWC), to investigate how the quality of working conditions varies and how it influences both job satisfaction and whether teachers subsequently leave their school or the teaching profession overall. Prior analysis using the TALIS 2013 data investigated the relationships between school working conditions and teacher job satisfaction and desire to move school. The present research updates and extends that analysis. In particular, the new data affords the opportunity to compare working conditions across primary and secondary phases, model the relationship between working conditions and whether teachers are observed to actually leave their school or the profession, investigate the importance of school discipline, and compare changes in working conditions for lower secondary teachers over time. [For the 2013 report, "TALIS 2013: Working Conditions, Teacher Job Satisfaction and Retention. Statistical Working Paper," see ED604491.]

Evidence from unexpected temporary school closures and reduced instruction time suggests school closures will reduce educational achievement, both in the short and long term. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are likely to be affected more than others by school closures, with fewer family resources and less access to online learning resources to offset lost instruction time. In England, the total cost of the resources lost in each week of state school closure is more than £1 billion. Educational deficits from time lost to school shutdowns can be made up with additional hours of teaching when schools reopen, though schools might need to put back more hours than were lost and it may not be feasible to do this within the traditional school year. Compensating lost instruction time through additional resources, without additional hours, is likely to be even more expensive.

This report has been produced by Douglas Bourn, Director of Development Education Research Centre at UCL and Jenny Hatley from Bath Spa University, on behalf of the Our Shared World Coalition of organisations. The focus of Our Shared World is to lobby UK government and other policymakers on why Target 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals should be an integral component of all children and young people's learning. This report has been commissioned by the network to gather evidence of the extent to which the themes of Target 4.7 of the Goals are already reflected within schools in England, and aims to demonstrate current levels of engagement in these themes, how they are being delivered, areas of success, identifiable gaps and what the priorities for policymakers should be in the future.

This research was undertaken by teachers and students from 5 countries who were all working together on a Zero Waste project. The schools were in Borneo in Malaysia, Taiwan, the Punjab district of India, Jordan and the Southeast of the UK. It looks at how schools from such diverse areas of the world can work together successfully on a collaborative project and discusses the challenges and benefits of this partnership. The study aimed to show how working collaboratively with several countries can help to develop pupils' values of empathy and respect and make them aware of their responsibilities as global citizens. This report will give schools and teachers current information about work linked to climate change and the SDGs in the 5 participating countries, all of which fall into areas of the British Council's work. The data, which was collected through questionnaires and evaluations, showed surprising similarities between the schools. The enthusiasm for this work on Zero Waste and detailed answers from the students and teachers provided interesting information for this paper. The project was conducted during COVID-19, yet despite the many restrictions and home-learning taking place, the results have been very rewarding. [This paper was published by Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning in collaboration with the Development Education Research Centre (DERC). The Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning (CCGL) programme is funded by the British Council and UK aid.]

The aim of this research was to capture learning from teachers in Cumbria about global learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. It gathered data on teacher engagement in global learning between March 2020 (the start of the first national 'Lockdown' in England) and March 2021 when Lockdowns in England were fully lifted. It explored the barriers and enablers for the practice of global learning and if teachers viewed global learning differently as a result of the pandemic. The research finds that some teachers think that living through the experience of the pandemic has meant that many learners are now better able to understand their role in the world as citizens of a global community. In some schools, global learning has now become even more important in school -- both in terms of 'buy-in' from other staff and from learners themselves. The research also found evidence that prior experience of global learning meant that some students were better prepared for the experience of the pandemic itself. [This paper was published by Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning in collaboration with the Development Education Research Centre (DERC). The Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning (CCGL) programme is funded by the British Council and UK aid.]

With school budgets at their tightest and a wealth of choices for teacher Continuing Professional Development (CPD), how do senior leaders make the right decisions on training which will deliver real change to classroom practice? CPD must go beyond adding content and resources to an already overwhelmed curriculum but also consider how teachers teach, what that looks like in the classroom and the impact on pupil outcomes beyond tests. Approaches to global learning are closely linked to critical pedagogies and engaging with the world. The question for this research concerns the impact of certain types of pedagogy, specifically those which engage in critical thinking to produce critical understanding in global learning, and asks what conditions are required within teacher CPD in England to support teachers to achieve their full potential in the classroom.

This paper investigates the impact of changes in the funding of higher education in England on students' choices and outcomes. Over the last two decades--through three major reforms in 1998, 2006 and 2012--undergraduate university education in public universities moved from being free to students and state funded to charging substantial tuition fees to all students. This was done in conjunction with the government offering generous means-tested maintenance grants and loans. Using detailed longitudinal micro-data that follows all students attending state schools in England (more than 90 percent of all school-aged children) from lower education to higher education, we document the socio-economic distributional effects of the 2006 and 2012 policy reforms on a comprehensive set of outcomes, including enrolment, relocation decisions, selection of institution, program of study, and performance within university. For a subset of students, we track them after completing higher education, allowing us to study the labour market effects of the policy reforms. Despite the substantial higher education funding reforms, we do not find large aggregate effect on student enrolment or on other margins. Moreover, the small negative impacts found on enrolment were largely borne on those in higher parts of the wealth distribution--reducing the enrolment gap across socioeconomic groups. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre's Education and Skills Programme.]

This paper studies whether pupil performance gains achieved by autonomous schools--specifically academy schools in England--can be attributed to the strategic exclusion of poorly performing pupils. In England there have been two phases of academy school introduction, the first in the 2000s being a school improvement programme for schools serving disadvantaged pupil populations, the second a mass academisation programme in the 2010s which by contrast enabled better performing schools to become academies. Overall, on average across both programmes, exclusion rates are higher in academy schools. When the two programmes are considered separately, the earlier programme featured a much higher increase in the incidence of permanent exclusion. However, a number of simulated counterfactual experiments based on the statistical estimates show that rather than being used as a strategic means of manipulation to boost measured school performance, the higher rate of exclusion is instead a feature of the rigorously enforced discipline procedures that the pre-2010 academies adopted. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre for Economic Performance's Education and Skills Programme.]

Despite increasing financial pressures on higher education systems throughout the world, many governments remain resolutely opposed to the introduction of tuition fees, and some countries and states where tuition fees have been long established are now reconsidering free higher education. This paper examines the consequences of charging tuition fees on university quality, enrolments, and equity. To do so, we study the English higher education system which has, in just two decades, moved from a free college system to one in which tuition fees are among the highest in the world. Our findings suggest that England's shift has resulted in increased funding per head, rising enrolments, and a narrowing of the participation gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. In contrast to other systems with high tuition fees, the English system is distinct in that its income-contingent loan system keeps university free at the point of entry, and provides students with comparatively generous assistance for living expenses. We conclude that tuition fees, at least in the English case supported their goals of increasing quality, quantity, and equity in higher education

Recent research has established that teachers matter for student achievements, albeit because of dimensions of 'teacher quality' that are largely unexplained. A less closely investigated issue is whether teacher turnover directly harms student academic achievement. In this paper, we examine whether teacher turnover affects academic achievement of 16 year old state secondary school students using a unique data set of linked students and teachers in England. Identification comes from either: a school fixed effects design which exploits year-on-year variation in turnover in different subject groups, within schools; or student fixed effect design that where the variation comes from the cross sectional variation in turnover in different subjects, in the same school, experienced by a student. Both methods give similar results, suggesting that a higher teacher entry rate reduces students' test scores, albeit by small amounts.

High teacher turnover in schools is associated with reduced pupil attainment. High turnover also has an effect on equity, since it tends to be concentrated in schools with deprived intakes. A good deal of research has attributed higher levels of teacher turnover in such schools to the challenges involved in teaching disadvantaged pupils. However, a recent review of the literature suggests that working conditions in schools may be a more important reason for high turnover. This research provides new evidence on this point by using the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) to test for and quantify the relationships between different aspects of working conditions in schools, and both teachers' job satisfaction and desire to move to another school. The research shows that job satisfaction among teachers in England is below that of comparable TALIS nations. Using data on over 50,000 teachers from 34 different countries, and controlling for the effects of teacher age, gender, qualifications and experience, the research shows that more cooperation between teachers and more effective professional development is associated with increased teacher job satisfaction. The findings of this report highlight the importance of the more interpersonal aspects of working conditions, such as school leadership and teacher cooperation, for helping to reduce turnover. [For the 2018 report, "TALIS 2018: Teacher Working Conditions, Turnover and Attrition. Statistical Working Paper", see ED604489.]

It is well established that teachers are the most important in-school factor in determining student outcomes. However, to date there is scant robust quantitative research demonstrating that teacher training programs can have lasting impacts on student test scores. To address this gap, we conduct and evaluate a teacher peer-to-peer observation and feedback program under Randomized Control Trial (RCT) conditions. Half of 181 volunteer primary schools in England were randomly selected to participate in the two year program. We find that students of treated teachers perform no better on national tests a year after the program ended. The absence of external observers and incentives in our program may explain the contrast of these results with the small body of work which shows a positive influence of teacher observation and feedback on pupil outcomes. [Support for this research was provided by the German Science Foundation.]

Childcare quality is often thought to be important for influencing children's subsequent attainment at school. The English Government regulates the quality of early education by setting minimum levels of qualifications for workers and grading settings based on a national Inspectorate (OfSTED). This paper uses administrative data on over two million children to relate performance on national teacher assessments at ages 5 and 7 to the quality characteristics of the nursery they attended before starting school. Results show that staff qualifications and childcare quality ratings have a weak association with teacher assessments at school, based on comparing children who attended different nurseries but attended the same primary school. Our results suggest that although children's outcomes are related to the nursery they attend, which nurseries are good cannot be predicted by staff qualifications and OfSTED ratings; the measures of quality that Government has focused on. Supplementary tables are appended. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre for Economic Performance's Education and Skills Programme.]

The change of government in 2010 provoked a large structural change in the English education landscape. Unexpectedly, the new government offered primary schools the chance to have "the freedom and the power to take control of their own destiny", with better performing schools given a green light to convert to become an academy school on a fast track. In England, schools that become academies have more freedom over many ways in which they operate, including the curriculum, staff pay, the length of the school day and the shape of the academic year. However, the change to allow primary school academisation has been controversial. In this paper, we study the effect for the first primary schools that became academies. While the international literature provides growing evidence on the effects of school autonomy in a variety of contexts, little is known about the effects of autonomy on primary schools (which are typically much smaller than secondary schools) and in contexts where the school is not deemed to be failing or disadvantaged. The key finding is that schools did change their modes of operation after the exogenous policy change, but at the primary phase of schooling, academisation did not lead to improved pupil performance. An appendix provides information on the way in which the sample of pupils and schools are selected for the analysis of primary academies and on issues related to the school income and expenditure data analysed in the paper. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre for Economic Performance's Education and Skills Programme.]

Education policy worldwide has sought to incentivize school improvement and facilitate pupil-school matching by introducing reforms that promote autonomy and choice. Understanding the way in which families form preferences during these periods of reform is crucial for evaluating the impact of such policies. We study the effects on choice of a recent shock to the English school system--the academy programme--which gave existing state schools greater autonomy, but provided limited information on possible expected benefits. We use administrative data on school applications for three cohorts of students to estimate whether academy conversion changes schools' popularity. We find that families--particularly non-poor, White British ones--rank converted schools higher on average. Expected changes in composition, effectiveness and other school policies cannot explain this updating of preferences. Instead, the patterns suggest that families combine the signal of conversion with prior information on quality, popularity and proximity as a heuristic for assessing a school's expected future performance. The following are appended: (1) Robustness checks; and (2) Estimating Academies' Effectiveness using Legacy Enrolled Pupils. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre for Economic Performance's Education and Skills Programme.]

Positive social mobility benefits individuals in terms of personal advancement and the nation in terms of productivity. There are other social benefits aside. Education, including higher education, is widely understood to be a key contributor to social mobility. However, without a measure of universities' impact on social mobility it is difficult to assess their individual or combined contribution to this agenda and therefore to understand fully the value of university education to individuals, to the country and its taxpayers. The author sets out to identify a measure of universities' contributions to social mobility, combining the social distance travelled by graduates and the number of graduates transported. In this paper, Professor David Phoenix, the Vice-Chancellor of London South Bank University, proposes a new English Social Mobility Index (SMI). Incorporating the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and the distance they travel after they enter their higher education institution, the English SMI provides a new way of understanding the contribution of universities to social mobility. [Foreword written by Nick Hillman.]

Student funding remains hotly contested. In this HEPI Debate Paper, Alan Roff examines the findings of the Office for Budget Responsibility, which regards the past treatment of student loans in the national accounts as a 'fiscal illusion'. Roff explores the consequences of this change of heart and pushes for an alternative approach to student finance based on a new graduation contribution scheme.

Inequalities do not end once students enter higher education. Yet, the majority of papers on the effectiveness of higher education aid examine its impact on college enrolment. In this paper, we provide evidence on the causal impact of means-tested but otherwise unconditional financial aid on the outcomes of students who have already enrolled in college. To do so, we exploit a unique non-salient financial aid program which varies both across and within institutions, and for which eligibility is a highly non-linear function of parental income. Using student-level administrative data collected from 9 English universities, we study the effects of aid receipt on college completion rates, annual course scores, and degree quality. Our findings suggest that each £1,000 of financial aid awarded increases the chances of gaining a good degree by around 3.7 percentage points, driven by increases in annual rates of completion and course scores. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre for Economic Performance's Education and Skills Programme.]

Increasing the number of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) university graduates is considered a key element for long-term productivity and competitiveness in the global economy. Still, little is known about what actually drives and shapes students' choices. This paper focusses on secondary school students at the very top of the ability distribution and explores the effect of more exposure to science on enrolment and persistence in STEM degrees at the university and on the quality of the university attended. The paper overcomes the standard endogeneity problems by exploiting the different timing in the implementation of a reform that induced secondary schools in the UK to offer more science to high ability 14 year-old children. Taking more science in secondary school increases the probability of enrolling in a STEM degree by 1.5 percentage point and the probability of graduating in these degrees by 3 percentage points. The results mask substantial gender heterogeneity: while girls are as willing as boys to take advanced science in secondary school--when offered--the effect on STEM degrees is entirely driven by boys. Girls are induced to choose more challenging subjects, but still the most female-dominated ones. An appendix provides supplementary tables. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre for Economic Performance's Education and Skills Programme.]

The paper investigates two -- often disconnected -- policy questions: how can we scale the use of evidence in teaching practice, and how can we generate and scale innovation? Both questions necessitate understanding how teachers and schools connect with each other, and with other organisations and professionals. The paper thus explores the role of networks in scaling evidence and innovation through a review of literature and a number of short case descriptions. Through the lens of networks, the analysis shows how the mobilisation, construction and diffusion of knowledge are of central importance in both policy issues. It suggests that scaling evidence and innovation should be treated as one ecosystem, in which mechanisms that allow effectively blending research and practical knowledge are key. Further, the paper proposes a framework for studying knowledge dynamics in networks to better understand how their context, characteristics and devices can contribute to facilitate these dynamics.

We study teachers' choices about how to allocate class time across different instructional activities, for example, lecturing, open discussion, or individual practice. Our data come from secondary schools in England, specifically classes preceding GCSE exams. Students score higher in math when their teacher devotes more class time to individual practice and assessment. In contrast, students score higher in English if there is more discussion and work with classmates. Class time allocation predicts test scores separate from the quality of the teacher's instruction during the activities. These results suggest opportunities to improve student achievement without changes in teachers' skills.

Significant numbers of people have very low levels of literacy in many OECD countries and, because of this, face significant labour market penalties. Despite this, it remains unclear what teaching strategies are most useful for actually rectifying literacy deficiencies. The subject remains hugely controversial amongst educationalists and has seldom been studied by economists. Research evidence from part of Scotland prompted a national change in the policy guidance given to schools in England in the mid-2000s about how children are taught to read. We conceptualise this as a shock to the education production function that affects the technology of teaching. In particular, there was phasing in of intensive support to some schools across Local Authorities: teachers were trained to use a new phonics approach. We use this staggered introduction of intensive support to estimate the effect of the new "teaching technology" on children's educational attainment. We find there to be effects of the teaching technology ("synthetic phonics") at age 5 and 7. However, by the age of 11, other children have caught up and there are no average effects. There are long-term effects only for those children with a higher initial propensity to struggle with reading. An appendix contains the following tables: (1) Communication, Language and Literacy at Age 5; (2) Local Authorities in Treatment and Control Groups; (3) Heterogeneity in Estimated Treatment Effects by Non-Native Speaker Status and Free School Meals Eligibility--Different Cohorts for the EDRp v Control; (4) Age 11 Results With and Without Imputation; (5) Heterogeneity in Estimated Treatment Effects by Language Type (i.e. Latin Script v Non-Latin Script) and Free School Meals Eligibility; (6) Heterogeneous Effects for Boys and Girls; (7) Heterogeneity by Subject; and (8) Heterogeneity by Subject: Threshold Effects. [Support was provided by the British Academy and the Royal Society in the framework of the Newton International Fellowship.]

This report provides an overview of the current financial health of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) funded higher education sector in England. This does not include directly funded further education or other colleges, or alternative providers of higher education. The analysis covers financial results for the academic year 2014-15, as submitted to HEFCE in December 2015, as well as the outcomes from the sector's Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) reporting for 2014-15, as submitted to HEFCE in January 2016. The report is being published to provide universities and higher education colleges with feedback on their financial performance in 2014-15. It also provides other stakeholders with information about the current financial health of the HEFCE-funded sector. This report focuses on the financial results for 2014-15.

Are teachers and principals aligned in their perceptions of the core components of the theory of Leadership for Learning across countries, or are there subgroups of schools in which there is misalignment? The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which a congruency-typology model of leadership for learning is distributed across countries/economies using the TALIS 2018 dataset through examining the interaction of significantly different subgroups of teacher and principal responders through using multilevel latent class analysis (LCA) with a cross-level interaction. I analyse data from lower secondary schools of n=152 635 teachers in 9 079 schools and their principals across 47 countries/economies. Currently in the research literature on school leadership, leadership for learning has emerged as a framework to bring together managerial, transformational, distributed, and instructional leadership. Yet little is known about leadership for learning across national contexts. This study 1) maps the TALIS 2018 survey items to the current literature and surveys for leadership for learning, 2) then details the methods and analysis framework to examine if there are multiple significantly different types of teachers, principals, and schools from a leadership for learning theory framework. The final model 3) identifies a three-group teacher typology and a three-group principal typology, linking these types to school context, covariates, as well as teacher and principal training and experience. Results relate directly to the intersection of research, policy, and practice for training and capacity of school leaders across 47 countries/economies globally.

The English education system has undergone a large restructuring programme through the introduction of academy schools. The most salient feature of these schools is that, despite remaining part of the state sector, they operate with more autonomy than the predecessor schools they replace. Two distinct time periods of academy school introduction have taken place, under the auspices of different governments. The first batch was initiated in the 2002/03 school year by the Labour government of the time and was directly aimed at turning around badly performing schools. The second batch involved a mass academisation process following the change of government in May 2010 and the Academies Act of that year and resulted in increased heterogeneity of new academies. This paper compares the two batches of introduction with the aim of getting a better understanding of their similarities and differences. To do so, we study what types of schools were more likely to change to academy status in the two programmes, and the impact of this change on the quality of new pupil enrolments into the new types of school. Whilst we do point out some similarities, these are the exception rather than the norm. For the most part, our analysis reveals a number of marked dissimilarities between the two programmes in terms of both the characteristics of schools that become academies and the subsequent changes in intakes. Additional tables are appended. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre for Economic Performance's Education and Skills Programme.]

This paper studies the effect of free pre-school education on child outcomes in primary school. We exploit the staggered implementation of free part-time pre-school for three-year-olds across Local Education Authorities in England in the early 2000s. The policy led to small improvements in attainment at age five, with no apparent benefits by age 11. We argue that this is because the expansion of free places largely crowded out privately paid care, with small changes in total participation, and was achieved through an increase in private provision, where quality is lower on average than in the public sector. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre for Economic Performance's Education and Skills Programme.]

We study the origins of what has become one of the most radical and encompassing programmes of school reform seen in the recent past amongst advanced countries--the introduction of academy schools to English secondary education. Academies are state schools that are allowed to run in an autonomous manner which is free from local authority control. Almost all academies are conversions from already existent state schools and so are school takeovers that enable more autonomy. Our analysis shows that this first round of academy conversions that took place in the 2000s generated significant improvements in the quality of pupil intake and in pupil performance. There is evidence of heterogeneity as improvements only occur for schools experiencing the largest increase in their school autonomy relative to their predecessor state. Analysis of mechanisms points to changes in head teachers and management structure as key factors underpinning these improvements in pupil outcomes. An appendix contains the Data Description. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre for Economic Performance's Education and Skills Programme.]

Recent changes in education and training policy in England continue to focus on creating a 'demand-led' system in an environment where public funds are dwindling and where more responsibility is being devolved away from central government. This raises questions about governance of the system, among others, and the roles that key system actors are expected to play. This paper broadly discusses education and training system policies that focus on workforce development in England and the US, especially with regard to the role of further education colleges (community colleges in the US), employer engagement, and local workforce development bodies. The focus is on governance at the post-secondary level, as the main interest is skills development after compulsory education. The US and England share a number of features and problems that affect the education and training system, such as lack of employer involvement, the lower status of sub-baccalaureate education and training providers despite their central role in delivering vocational education and training programmes, and insufficient links between education and training provision and the labour market. The most striking differences between the American and English systems are the governance and authority structures, which are stronger in the US and afford greater scope for strategic planning by states and between states and the federal level. The experiences of community colleges in working with employers to provide workforce training may be worth further investigation as further education colleges further develop this type of provision. The US experience is less instructive with regard to quality assurance or increasing employers' engagement with education.

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) measures trends in children's reading literacy achievement. PIRLS was conducted for the third time in 2011. It is conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and compares the reading attainment and attitudes to reading of over 200,000 9- and 10-year-old children around the world. It is the only international study to provide information on the reading habits of primary-aged children: the survey collects information not just on reading attainment, but also about children's reading attitudes and habits, and whether and what they read for pleasure. Background information is also collected from headteachers and teachers and this provides further comparative information about schools and the teaching of reading. NFER was commissioned by Save the Children to provide international research evidence to support a major UK initiative, "Read On. Get On". As part of this, NFER has produced an evidence paper which accompanies the coalition report. This additional report contains analysis of data from PIRLS 2011 to provide further evidence on the attainment gap in England. Key findings include: (1) In England the score difference between the lowest and highest performers is larger than in countries with comparable overall performance; (2) Only five per cent of pupils in England do not reach the Low International Benchmark, with more boys than girls failing to reach this level. This gender gap is larger than in countries with comparable overall performance; (3) England has among the highest percentage of pupils reaching the Advanced International Benchmark, with more girls than boys performing at this highest level. In almost none of the comparison countries is the gender gap at the Advanced International Benchmark larger than in England; (4) In England, the lowest 25 per cent of performers report that their parents show interest in school related issues about once or twice a week. In two thirds of the comparison countries, pupils report that their parents were significantly more interested in their school related issues; and (5) In England, the lowest 25 per cent of performers report that on average they spend less than one hour per day reading outside of school. In over two thirds of the comparison countries this group of pupils reports spending significantly more time reading outside of school. Data tables are appended.

This paper explores the impact of test-taking conditions on the quality of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) assessment. Interviewers record information about the room of assessment and interruptions that occurred during each interview. These observations, along with information on interviewer assignment size and a careful look at interviewer effects, provide insights into the quality of the assessment. This working paper first describes the variations in test-taking conditions among participating countries. Second, it examines interviewer assignment sizes and the frequency of interruptions, finding that both vary markedly among countries (contrary to the room of assessment). The paper then looks at the relationship between these variations and response rates and engagement measures. While neither the room of assessment nor the recorded interruptions impact quality differences among countries, interviewer assignment size and interviewer effects may have a mild impact on results.

This paper studies distributional effects of education on health. In 1972, England, Scotland, and Wales raised their minimum school-leaving age from 15 to 16 for students born after 9/1/1957. Using a regression discontinuity design and objective health measures for 0.27 million individuals, we find that education reduced body size and increased blood pressure in middle age. The reduction in body size was concentrated at the upper tail of the distribution with a 7.5 percentage point reduction in obesity. The increase in blood pressure was concentrated at the lower tail of the distribution with no effect on stage 2 hypertension. [Additional funding for this research was provided by University of Southern California's Roybal Center for Health Decision Making and Financial Independence in Old Age and the USC Population Research Center.]

Migration is a hugely contested area and the widely differing views, statistics, and attitudes to migrants are infused with politics. EU migration is a special case because EU citizens have free movement rights, may live and work in any other EU country, and have almost the same rights as locals. During the past 10 years there have been two waves of EU accession: In 2004 eight East European countries received the right to take up employment in the UK freely, and in 2007 when the UK introduced restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian citizens to work in the UK, which were lifted on 1 January 2014. In 2004 a much larger than expected number of A8 citizens moved to work in the UK, which raised the alarm in particular among the wider public. Questions were raised concerning the impact of the A8 migrants on social and welfare benefits, on youth unemployment, on the labour market, on wages, and whether or not the A8 migrants contribute to the UK economy and generate financial benefits for the country. This study investigated the views and experiences of 10 Hungarian migrants living in the south-east of England. The data suggest that the UK offers better opportunities for Hungarian migrants to find employment than Hungary, and that there are better chances for them in the UK to establish financial security. Many of the interviewees have already worked excessive hours in Hungary, and some also engaged in low-skilled and low-paid work before coming to the UK. All interviewees were well educated at levels 3, 4 and 5 and often had two to three qualifications. In spite of this most interviewees found employment in the UK in low-skilled and low-paid work. English language skills, unknown Hungarian qualifications, lack of UK work experience, lack of time, and lack of financial resources were the main reasons for not being able to negotiate better jobs and starting higher on the job ladder. Most interviewees felt uncomfortable in their low-skilled jobs and often felt that they would be able to offer so much more. They also felt they brought their positive attitude, flexibility, high standards, and, in particular, intelligence to their jobs. Career progression was very slow, and often they had one low-skilled job after the other, making horizontal moves rather then vertical. However, all were engaged in learning and professional development and education was considered as the means to success. All interviewees felt they had established financial security for themselves by 2014, they had permanent posts and their wages had increased over time. However, progressing in their chosen career or working according to their highest qualifications was a distant future for many.

Most previous research on grammar schools has focused narrowly on eligibility for Free School Meals as a measure of disadvantage. But with 45% of pupils at grammar schools coming from families with below median incomes, a broader consideration of the impact of grammar schools on social mobility is necessary. The evidence suggests that grammar schools can increase the likelihood of progression to highly-selective higher education for pupils from some traditionally disadvantaged groups, including pupils in the most disadvantaged two quintiles of social disadvantage and pupils with Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds (BME). This report considers the impact of grammar schools on progression to higher education, considering various groups of pupils and focusing particularly on progression to highly-selective education and to Oxbridge. It considers both the chance of getting into a grammar school and the relative rates of progression, to compare the opportunities of pupils in selective and non-selective areas. It also assesses the impact of the new specialist Maths schools and explores attitudes to grammar school expansion across different socio-economic classes.

Numeracy and literacy skills have become increasingly important in modern labour markets. The large gender differences that several studies have identified have therefore sparked considerable attention among researchers and policy makers. Little is known about the moment in which such gaps emerge, how they evolve and if their evolution differs across countries. We use data from large-scale international assessments to follow representative samples of birth-cohorts over time, and analyse how gender gaps in numeracy and literacy evolve from age 10 to age 27. Our results suggest that, across the countries examined, males' advantage in numeracy is smallest at age 10 and largest at age 27. The growth in magnitude of the gender gap is particularly pronounced between the age of 15 and 27. Such evolution stands in sharp contrast with the evolution of the gender gap in literacy, which is small at age 10, large and in favour of females at age 15, and negligible by age 27.

This study uses the PIAAC data to examine the relationships between education system characteristics (e.g. early tracking and vocational education orientation) and distributions of adult numeracy skills. It also investigates the effects of postponing the tracking age and easing university access for students on a vocational track on the average skills and different percentiles of the skills distribution. Correlational analysis suggests that education systems with more students enrolled in vocational tracks have on average higher levels of numeracy skills and more compressed skills distributions between the 50th and 90th percentiles. Further analysis suggests that postponing the tracking age among 14 European countries does not have a significant effect on the average skills of the population. However, it increases skills for individuals at the 10th, 20th, and 30th percentiles of the skill distribution. Expanding university access is associated with an increase in numeracy skills, particularly for individuals at the bottom three deciles of the distribution.

We find an individual's rank within their reference group has effects on later objective outcomes. To evaluate the impact of local rank, we use a large administrative dataset tracking over two million students in England from primary through to secondary school. Academic rank within primary school has sizable, robust and significant effects on later achievement in secondary school, conditional on national test scores. Moreover we find boys gain four times more in later test scores from being top compared to girls. We provide evidence for a mechanism using matched survey data, which shows that rank affects an individual's self-concept. The paper discusses other potential channels but concludes that malleable non-cognitive skills such as confidence and belief in own ability are most likely to generate these results. We put forward a basic model where rank effects costs and effort allocation when faced with multiple tasks. We believe this is the first large-scale study to show large and robust effects of rank position on objective outcomes of that have consequences in the labour market. The following are appended: (1) Model; (2) Peer Effects; and (3) Measurement Error in Test Scores. Five tables are also included in the appendices.

Politicians regularly cite an expected individual economic gain (the 'graduate premium') as a justification for greater private contributions to the cost of higher education, most recently as part of the rationale for the increase in England of the cap on Home/EU undergraduate fees to £9000 from 2012 (e.g. Willetts 2011a). However, the choices that potential students make about whether to apply to university, and if so where and what to study, are not influenced directly by the, necessarily impersonal, and highly contested (Thompson 2012), theoretical and often overly generalised estimates of the financial benefits for recent graduates over their careers (e.g. BIS 2011: 111-115). Rather, views that individual applicants hold about outcomes that they envisage personally can be expected to be significant; these are explored in this paper which is based on research conducted in seven secondary schools/colleges among Year 13 pupils taking courses that would make them eligible to apply for higher education. A questionnaire was followed by focus groups with applicants in five of the participating institutions. The research found that there are high levels of uncertainty amongst potential applicants regarding the costs and possible financial benefits of studying for a degree. However, attitudes towards the concept of a graduate premium have a strong influence on the propensity of applying to higher education. The differences in the expected cost of studying at different institutions was not a predominant factor in participants' choices about where to apply -- this was partly because the difference in costs of studying at different institutions were seen as small and students did not expect to have precise information until they started at university or college.

In 2012 the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government introduced a number of reforms to the higher education system in England. The main change was to abolish direct state subsidies for the teaching of most subjects, and replace them with a state-subsidised tuition fee of up to $9,000 (US $13,700). A number of other changes were also made, all with the aim of increasing institutional competition and consumer choice. The Government believes the reforms are necessary to assure financial sustainability, raise quality and enhance social mobility. This paper assesses the early impact of the reforms. It concludes that, on the evidence so far, none of the Governments declared objectives is likely to be met.

The four "home countries" of the United Kingdom are becoming increasingly different with regard to education policy. Nevertheless, they are still highly comparable as compared to education systems elsewhere. Over time, they have had a similar legislative framework (particularly in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and, in a broader sense, there is a similar social context across the four countries. For example, there is a comparable level of inequality across many education indicators, with similar trends emerging in recent times. In-depth analysis by the National Equality Panel (2010) attributed this to the fact that policies most important for influencing distributional outcomes (such as tax and benefits) are UK-wide. In this paper, the authors take the opportunity to appraise differences and similarities in educational policies and outcomes in the four UK nations. The fact that England has pursued very different policies in the recent past than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland provides a good testing ground to undertake such a comparative review of what has and has not worked so well in terms of the education reforms that have taken place. The content of the paper is structured as follows. In Section 2, the authors discuss some key areas of education policy in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Sections 3 and 4, they compare the countries in terms of educational performance and inequality. In Section 5, the authors then discuss evaluation evidence as it relates to key educational issues and the differences and similarities in educational outcomes across the different UK nations. Section 6 offers some concluding remarks. Data Appendix is included. (Contains 8 tables, 1 figure and 6 footnotes.)

In the United States, developing "human capital" for both economic and social benefit is an idea as old as the nation itself and led to the emergence of world's first mass higher education system. Now most other nations are racing to expand access to universities and colleges and to expand their role in society. Higher education is growing markedly in its importance for building a culture of aspiration and, in turn, the formation of human capital, the promotion of socioeconomic mobility, and the determination of national economic competitiveness. This paper outlines a convergence of approaches toward building what I call "Structured Opportunity Markets" (SOM) in higher education--including diversified providers and expanding enrollment and program capacity. Increasingly, higher education systems in developed and developing nations, and in some cases, supranational entities such as the European Union and emerging cooperation among nations in South East Asia, will move to most if not all of the components of SOM, in part influenced by a global process of policy transfer. Those nations and regions that do not pursue major components of SOM will be compelled to present rational arguments in both domestic and international forums as to why they are not adopting some aspects of the model. The paper concludes by arguing that while the US offers structural and operational models for many evolving national higher education systems, the EU offers important insights on how to pursue higher education reform in the modern and increasingly competitive global context. (Contains 6 footnotes.)

This paper discusses research and thinking on the importance of interpersonal and intrapersonal effectiveness for teachers, school leaders and school improvement, and explores implications of the use of NLP in relation to personalisation and the children's agenda. It outlines initial research carried out as part of the Fast Track Teaching programme (the UK government accelerated leadership development programme) and on the London Leadership Strategy and makes suggestions for further research. Two appendices are included: (1) Content analysis of suggestions for use of NLP in teaching and school leadership (n. 380 teachers); and (2) Core content knowledge covered in the INLPTA Diploma Level training.