Publisher's Synopsis
This review of research evidence on selective and comprehensive education is an important contribution to the debate on the future of English grammar schools. Few educational issues generate so much passion. After an outline of current policy on grammar schools and a historical overview of selective and comprehensive education, the review provides readers with a chronologically ordered summary of relevant research. The ideological leanings and methodological strengths and weaknesses of particular studies are identified. Although clear-cut conclusions cannot be reached from these studies, it does seem that some groups of children tend to perform better academically in grammar schools, while others achieve more in comprehensive schools. However, overall performance at system level is much the same and studies have found larger differences between the results of different schools of the same type than between the average results of different systems. In conclusion, the authors consider some of the implications of ending or retaining selection in the present context.
