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The Relative Effectiveness of Post‐16 Institutions in England (Including Assisted Places Scheme Schools)
Author(s) -
Tymms P. B.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/0141192920180206
Subject(s) - curriculum , academic achievement , psychology , variation (astronomy) , institution , multilevel model , outcome (game theory) , educational attainment , higher education , mathematics education , student achievement , medical education , pedagogy , sociology , medicine , social science , statistics , economic growth , economics , mathematical economics , astrophysics , physics , mathematics
The relative effectiveness of comprehensive schools, Roman Catholic institutions, sixth form colleges, further education colleges and Assisted Places Scheme schools was compared by considering several different outcome measures for students on pre‐university (A level) courses within England. The outcomes were examined using multilevel models in which prior attainment, home background, gender and contextual effects were employed as co‐variates. In general the models showed a strong relationship between exam grades and prior achievement but a very weak relationship with home background. The ‘likelihood of going to university’ was also strongly related to prior achievement but ‘attitude to the institution’ was poorly predicted by academic measures. Neither of the latter two outcome measures was significantly related to socio‐economic status. Considerable variation was found between schools in their performance in individual subjects but less variation was found for whole‐school measures. Some significant effects were found relating to the type of institution attended, but the effects were generally quite small and varied across outcome measures and curriculum areas. The article concludes by questioning the basis for the Assisted Places Scheme and with a call for more effective monitoring procedures which utilise the knowledge base which has now accumulated through research into school effectiveness.