Free to improve? The impact of free school attendance in England

Marco Bertoni, Gabriel Heller-Sahlgren and Olmo Silva

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We evaluate the impact of attending two secondary free schools in England – new autonomous state-funded start-ups – using admission lotteries and a distance-based regression discontinuity design. We characterise each school’s ethos through text analysis of vision statements: one follows a 'no excuses' paradigm common among US charter schools; the other adopts a 'classical liberal', knowledge-rich approach. These features distinguish them from each other and from counterfactual schools attended by rejected applicants. Despite pedagogical differences, both schools significantly improve test scores, reduce absences, and lower student mobility. Our findings support policies promoting horizontal differentiation in publicly funded education.

Keywords: school autonomy; quasi-markets; free schools; achievement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-12-31
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Published in Economics of Education Review, 31, December, 2025, 109. ISSN: 0272-7757

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