Social Mobility and Higher Education: Are Grammar Schools the Answer? Occasional Paper 22

Overview & Synopsis

HEPI's last foray into the debate on academic selection suggested grammar schools are successful in helping their poorer pupils reach highly-selective universities. In this response, a diverse set of voices use the latest evidence to challenge the idea that grammar school systems serve pupils better than comprehensive schools. This collection of essays also asks what lessons comprehensive schools might offer for the UK's highly-selective university system. Chapters in the volume include: (1) Introduction (John Furlong and Ingrid Lunt); (2) A Methodological Critique (Matt Dickson and Lindsey Macmillan); (3) Selective Secondary Education and Progression to Higher Education (Vikki Boliver and Queralt Capsada-Munsech); (4) What Do Cohort Studies Reveal about Grammar Schools, Higher Education and Social Mobility? (Alice Sullivan); (5) Rolling Forward Comprehensive Education: The Case for Including Universities (Tim Blackman); and (6) Concluding Comments (John Furlong and Ingrid Lunt).