Research shows choice could mean segregation

The independent:


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/academies-increase-divisions-between-the-rich-and-poor-study-finds-segregation-made-worse-by-a-wider-choice-of-schooling-8797105.html

The research, led by Professor Stephen Gorard from the University of Durham, concludes there is a “stubborn” underlying level of segregation in UK schools – fuelled by successive governments’ attempts to widen choice in schooling. It says that the “converter” academies – those rated as “outstanding” by the education standards watchdog Ofsted and allowed to convert from local authority control to academy status by the Education Secretary Michael Gove – were found to have much lower rates of children eligible for free school meals than the national average. Large numbers of such schools in any given authority “tended to be associated with higher levels of segregation”, the study, to be presented today to the British Educational Research Association annual conference at Sussex University, found. The converter academies were not alone in having greater segregation than the average, the researchers found. The same was true of faith schools and the country’s 164 remaining grammar schools.


http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/10651544.Education_expert_says_academies_make_social_segregation_worse/


and



While his overall research showed that the combination of immigration and the recession have combined to reduce the levels of race and class segregation between English schools in recent years, Prof Gorard also found that schools which had been allowed to convert to academies since 2010 now had much lower number of youngsters claiming free school meals compared to mainstream comprehensives still under local authority control.