Grammar Schools' Achievements and the DfEE's Measures of Value-added: an attempt at clarification.

In an endeavour to compare the teaching-efficiency of individual secondary schools in England, the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) published measures of pupils' progress in learning attainments between the ages of 14 and 16, based on the results of obligatory nationwide tests in a range of school-subjects at each of those ages (SATs and GCSE). The results were subsequently used by commentators to suggest that grammar schools do not make as much progress between those ages as comprehensive schools; and that pupils who are high-attainers at age 14 do better in their subsequent two years if they attend a comprehensive school rather than a grammar school. The present paper examines the robustness of the measuring rods for these purposes; it concludes that they are hardly adequate but, insofar as they are used for these purposes, the results indicate precisely the opposite: namely, greater average progress (greater 'value-added') for grammar schools, and for high-attaining pupils in grammar schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]