The Introduction of Academy Schools to England?s Education

Stephen Machin and Andrew Eyles

No 10772, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We study the origins of what has become one of the most radical and encompassing programmes of school reform seen in the recent past amongst advanced countries ? the introduction of academy schools to English secondary education. Academies are state schools that are allowed to run in an autonomous manner which is free from local authority control. Almost all academies are conversions from already existent state schools and so are school takeovers that enable more autonomy. Our analysis shows that this first round of academy conversions that took place in the 2000s generated significant improvements in the quality of pupil intake and in pupil performance. There is evidence of heterogeneity as improvements only occur for schools experiencing the largest increase in their school autonomy relative to their predecessor state. Analysis of mechanisms points to changes in headteachers and management structure as key factors underpinning these improvements in pupil outcomes.

Keywords: Academies; Pupil intake; Pupil performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I21 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-ger and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP10772 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: The Introduction of Academy Schools to England's Education (2019)
Working Paper: The introduction of academy schools to England’s education (2018)
Working Paper: The Introduction of Academy Schools to England's Education (2015)
Working Paper: The introduction of academy schools to England’seducation (2015)
Working Paper: The Introduction of Academy Schools to England's Education (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10772

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP10772

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().