Abstract
The schools students attend and the education they receive matters for their further education and employment opportunities and future life chances. The mechanisms by which students are allocated to schools therefore play a fundamental part in determining access to such educational opportunities. Choice-based mechanisms are now established, and politically popular, methods of allocating students to schools, and advocates argue that school choice both improves performance and ensures equity of access to good quality schools. The evidence to support such arguments is, however, much less conclusive: across a diversity of institutional contexts a common finding is that school choice reproduces social class advantage in the education context. In this chapter I focus on the outcomes of school choice policies and their implications for the educational opportunities created for young people from different social class backgrounds. I first discuss the theoretical benefits of school choice and show how it is in urban areas that there may be the greatest potential for realising those benefits. I then consider the extent to which the evidence supports the rhetoric and why, in practice, the theoretical benefits may not be realised. Reviewing the literature from different national and institutional contexts, I argue that the evidence suggests that class-based inequalities of educational opportunity have not been reduced through policies of school choice. The reasons behind these observed outcomes are, however, complex and inter-connected, and potential policy solutions are not straightforward, particularly given the entrenched advantages of the middle-classes in the education ‘market’.
References
Allen, R., & Burgess, S. (2010). The future of competition and accountability in education. http://www.2020publicservicestrust.org/publications . Accessed 16 Jun 2011.
Allen, R., & Vignoles, A. (2009). Can school competition improve standards? The case of faith schools in England. DoQSS Working Paper 09/04.
Allen, R., Burgess, S., & McKenna, L. (2013). The short-run impact of using lotteries for school admissions: Early results from Brighton and Hove’s reforms. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38(1), 149–166.
Atkinson, A., Gregg, P., & McConnell, B. (2006). The result of 11-plus selection: An investigation into opportunities and outcomes for pupils in selective LEAs. CMPO Discussion Paper 06/150, Bristol: CMPO.
Atkinson, A., Burgess, S., Gregg, P., Propper, C., & Proud, S. (2008). The impact of classroom peer groups on pupil GCSE results. CMPO Discussion Paper 08/187. Bristol: CMPO.
Ball, S., & Vincent, C. (1998). ‘I heard it on the grapevine’: ‘Hot’ knowledge and school choice. British Journal of the Sociology of Education, 19(3), 377–400.
Benson, M., Bridge, G., & Wilson, D. (2014). School choice in London and Paris – A comparison of middle-class strategies. Social Policy and Administration, available online from 19 May 2014. doi: 10.1111/spol.12079.
Böhlmark, A., & Lindahl, M. (2008). Does school privatization improve educational achievement? Evidence from Sweden’s voucher reform. IZA Discussion Paper 3691.
Bradley, S., & Taylor, J. (2002). The effect of the quasi-market on the efficiency-equity trade-off in the secondary school sector. Bulletin of Economic Research, 54(3), 295–314.
Bridge, G., & Wilson, D. (2014). Towards an interactive sociological rational choice approach to theorising class dimensions of school choice. Policy and Politics, available online from 14 Feb 2014.
Burgess, S., & Slater, H. (2006). Using boundary changes to estimate the impact of school competition on test scores. CMPO Discussion Paper 06/158, Bristol: CMPO.
Burgess, S., Propper, C., Slater, H., & Wilson, D. (2005). Who wins and who loses from school accountability? The distribution of educational gain in English secondary schools. CMPO Discussion Paper 05/128, University of Bristol.
Burgess, S., Propper, C., & Wilson, D. (2007a). The impact of school choice in England: Implications from the economic evidence. Policy Studies, 28(2), 129–143.
Burgess, S., McConnell, B., Propper, C., & Wilson, D. (2007b). The impact of school choice on sorting by ability and socio-economic factors in English secondary education. In L. Woessmann & P. Peterson (Eds.), Schools and the equal opportunity problem (pp. 273–291). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Burgess, S., Greaves, E., Vignoles, A., & Wilson, D. (2011). Parental choice of primary school in England: What types of school do different types of family really have available to them? Policy Studies, 32(5), 531–547.
Burgess, S., Greaves, E., Vignoles, A., & Wilson, D. (2014). What parents want: School preferences and school choice, Economic Journal, available online from 21 Aug 2014. doi: 10.1111/ecoj.12153.
Burgess, S., Dickson, M., & Macmillan, L. (2014). Selective schooling systems increase inequality, CMPO Discussion Paper 14/323, Bristol: CMPO.
Butler, T., & Hamnett, C. (2010). ‘You take what you are given’: The limits of parental choice in education in east London. Environment and Planning A, 42, 2431–2450.
Butler, T., & van Zanten, A. (2007). School choice: A European perspective. Journal of Education Policy, 22(1), 1–5.
Coldron, J., Crips, C., & Shipton, L. (2010). Why are English secondary schools socially segregated. Journal of Education Policy, 25, 19–35.
Dearden, L., Ryan, C., & Sibieta, L. (2010). What determines private school choice? A comparison between the United Kingdom and Australia. IFS Working Paper No. 10,22, London: Institute for Fiscal Studies.
DfE (Department for Education). (2012). GCSE and equivalent attainment by pupil characteristics in England 2010/11, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/revised-gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england-academic-year-2010-to-2011 . Accessed 16 Oct 2014.
Fack, G., & Grenet, J. (2010). When do better schools raise housing prices? Evidence from Paris public and private schools. Journal of Public Economics, 94, 59–77.
Gibbons, S., Machin, S., & Silva, O. (2008). Choice, competition and pupil achievement. Journal of the European Economic Association, 6(4), 912–947.
Greener, I., & Powell, M. (2008). The evolution of choice policies in UK housing, education and health policy. Journal of Social Policy, 38(1), 63–81.
The Guardian. (2014). http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/sep/16/state-school-pupils-worse-tutor-proof-11-plus-tests. Accessed 23 Oct 2014.
Harris, R. (2010). Segregation by choice? The debate so far. CMPO Discussion Paper 10/251, Bristol: CMPO.
Harris, R., Johnston, J., Jones, K., & Owen, D. (2013). Are indices still useful for measuring socioeconomic segregation in UK schools? A response to Watts. Environment and Planning A, 45, 2281–2289.
Hastings, J., & Weinstein, J. (2008). Information, school choice and academic achievement: Evidence from two experiments. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123(4), 1373–1414.
Hirschman, A. (1970). Exit, voice and loyalty: Responses to declines in firms, organizations and states. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hood, C. (2006). Gaming in target world: The targets approach to managing British public services. Public Administration Review, 66(4), 515–521.
Hoxby, C. (2000). Does competition among public schools benefit students and taxpayers? American Economic Review, 90(5), 1209–1238.
Karsten, S., Visscher, A., & De Jong, T. (2001). Another side to the coin: The unintended effects of the publication of school performance data in England and France. Comparative Education, 37(2), 231–242.
Ladd, H. (2003). Comment on Caroline Hoxby: School choice and competition: Evidence from the United States. Swedish Economic Policy Review, 10, 67–76.
Lauen, D. (2007). Contextual explanations of school choice. Sociology of Education, 80, 179–209.
Le Grand, J. (2007). The other invisible hand: Delivering public services through choice and competition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Levaĉić, R. (2004). Competition and the performance of English secondary schools: Further evidence. Education Economics, 12, 179–194.
Open Public Services White Paper. (2011). Available from http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk, Published 1 Jul 2011. Accessed 1 Dec 2014.
Pennell, H., West, A., & Hind, A. (2007). Religious composition and admission processes of faith secondary schools in London. London: Comprehensive Future.
Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. (2006). The UK Government’s approach to public service reform – A discussion paper. Available at: www.strategy.gov.uk/downloads/work_areas/public_service_reform/sj_report.pdf. Accessed 15 Jun 2006.
Reay, D., & Lucey, H. (2003). The limits of choice: Children and inner city schooling. Sociology, 37(1), 121–142.
Rothstein, J. (2006). Good principals or good peers? Parental valuation of school characteristics, Tiebout equilibrium, and the incentive effects of competition among jurisdictions. American Economic Review, 96(4), 1333–1350.
Rothstein, J. (2007). Does competition among public schools benefit students and tax-payers? A comment on Hoxby (2000). American Economic Review, 97(5), 2026–2037.
Schneider, M., & Buckley, J. (2002). What do parents want from schools? Evidence from the internet. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(2), 133–144.
Watts, M. (2013). Socioeconomic segregation in UK (secondary) schools: Are index measures still useful? Environment and Planning A, 45, 1528–1535.
West, A., & Pennell, H. (2000). Publishing school examination results in England: Incentives and consequences. Educational Studies, 26(4), 423–436.
West, A., Barhan, E., & Hind, A. (2009). School choice in London, England: Characteristics of students in different types of secondary schools. Peabody Journal of Education, 82(2–3), 498–529.
Wilson, D. (2009). Exit, voice and quality in the English education sector. Social Policy and Administration, 43(6), 571–584.
Wilson, D. (2013). Targets, choice and voice: Accountability in public services? In S. Griffiths, H. Kippin, & G. Stoker (Eds.), Public services: A new reform agenda. London: Bloomsbury Academic Press.
Wilson, D., & Piebalga, A. (2008). Performance measures, ranking and parental choice: An analysis of the English school league tables. International Public Management Journal, 11(3), 344–366.
Wilson, D., Croxson, B., & Atkinson, A. (2006). “What gets measured gets done”: Headteachers’ responses to the English secondary school performance management system. Policy Studies, 27(2), 153–171.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this entry
Cite this entry
Wilson, D. (2017). School Choice and Social Class: Urban Geographies and Educational Opportunities. In: Freeman, C., Tranter, P., Skelton, T. (eds) Risk, Protection, Provision and Policy. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 12. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-035-3_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-035-3_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-287-034-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-287-035-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences