Comments Welcome The Effects of Moving to More Autonomous School Structures: Academy Schools and Their Introduction to English Education Stephen Machin* and James Vernoit** October 2010 * Department of Economics, University College London and Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics ** Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics Abstract In this paper, we study a high profile case of where changing school structures resulted in schools having more autonomy and flexible governance, namely the introduction of academy schools to the English secondary school sector. We consider the impact of academy status on pupil intake, pupil performance and on pupil performance in neighbouring schools using a difference-in-difference approach comparing how these outcomes altered in academy schools compared to their (non-academy) predecessor school relative to changes in a set of matched comparison schools. Our results suggest that moving to the more autonomous academy school structure may well have yielded performance improvements, that the quality of intake went up and there is some limited evidence of positive spillovers to neighbouring schools. It seems that becoming an academy takes a while to yield such benefits. Meanwhile, in the controversial policy discussion about academies, our results (at least so far) do seem to place a relatively positive slant on the programme introduced by the Labour government of 1997-2010. JEL Keywords: Academies; Pupil Intake; Pupil Performance. JEL Classifications: I20; I21; I28. 0 1. Introduction Around the world, there is serious interest in what types of educational institutions deliver better outcomes to pupils. Nowhere is the debate more vociferous than for the case of schools. Policy focus in many countries has been placed on whether innovative schooling strategies can offset the problems that have been connected to low student achievement in state/public schools. Examples include learning lessons from the private sector (see Chakrabarti and Peterson, 2008), giving more autonomy to schools (Clark, 2009), different forms of school accountability (Hanushek and Raymond, 2004) and more flexible (and extended) teaching times and curriculum innovation (e.g. Abdulkadiroglu et al, 2009). A growing economics of education literature has presented empirical estimates of the impact of school type on pupil achievement. A quite sizable recent body of US work on charter schools (publically funded schools that have autonomy levels more like private schools) does find some evidence of achievement gains.1 In England, different school types seem important in enabling choice and competition to raise pupil performance.2 Almost everywhere in the developed world, increased parental demand for school choice and the high housing valuations induced by what parents view as better schools for their children (Black and Machin, 2010) all point to a heightened focus on what kind of schools deliver better outcomes to children. Some nations have been more innovative than others in their departure from the orthodox model of the local or community school. The charter school movement in the US has 1 This literature is not without controversy. Recent, typically small scale, quasi-experimental evaluations of charters in particular US cities (Boston and New York) does report positive impacts on educational achievement (see Abdulkadiroglu et al, 2009, Dobbie and Fryer, 2009, and Hoxby and Murarka, 2009). Wider coverage non-experimental evaluations produce more mixed results (CREDO, 2009). 2 See, for example, Gibbons, Machin and Silva (2008) find that in English community schools there is little scope for choice/competition to enhance performance, whilst such a possibility exists in faith schools where more autonomy in decision making is present. 1 spread across many states. In Sweden, a new type of private school has started operating in most of the country (self-titled ‘free schools’) that compete for students with public schools on an equal financial basis. These free-schools are privately managed, but receive full public funding which is calculated on the basis of the number of students that they enrol who live in their local area. In England, various different types of school have enjoyed popularity, but none more so than the case of academy schools that we study in this paper. Academy schools, and their gradual introduction into the English Educational system, have generated a controversial area of schools policy ever since the first clutch of academies opened in September 2002. Academies are independent, non-selective, state- funded schools that fall outside the control of local authorities, managed by a private team of independent co-sponsors. The sponsors then delegate the management of the school to a largely self-appointed board of governors.3 Each governing body of the academy has the responsibility to employ all academy staff, agree levels of pay, agree on conditions of service with its employees, and decide on the policies for staffing structure, career development, discipline, and performance management. It is hypothesised that the combination of independence to pursue innovative school policies and curricula, with the experience of the sponsor, will enable the Academy to drive up the educational attainment of their pupils throughout the school. The aim of this paper is to carefully appraise this hypothesis. It is important to find out whether or not the increased autonomy of academies does, in fact, result in superior academic performance for children who attend them. This matters both from an economic perspective which argues that more autonomy and flexible governance sharpens economic incentives, and from a public policy standpoint. On either side of the latter debate on 3 An academy usually has around thirteen governors, with seven typically appointed by the sponsor. 2 academies you will find, on one side, fierce supporters who passionately believe that academies will drive up educational performance, and on the other side, you will find fierce critics of Academy schools who claim the Academies do not work, and that they are just a way of (implicitly) privatising the state-education system in England. The rest of the paper is devoted to this task. In the next section of the paper, we discuss the nature of secondary schooling in England, and document the rise of academies. Section 3 describes the data and modelling strategy we adopt, and uses this discussion to formulate key hypotheses to be tested in the empirical work. Section 4 presents the results, whilst Section 5 concludes. 2. The Introduction of Academy Schools to English Education Academies are a new type of secondary school, first introduced into the English education system in the early 2000s. In this section, we consider this introduction, discussing how it relates to the different school types in the English secondary school system and documenting the scale of the rise of academy schools. School Types in England The English education system has always been characterised by a strong voluntary movement which has actively been involved in the delivery of education. These voluntary organisations are typically religious, and prior to the 19th century, were the sole providers in the delivery of education in England. Since this time, the state sector has gradually taken up a more active involvement in providing the resources to the education system by first helping to fund these early schools, and then actively creating new schools that have no affiliation with the voluntary sector (now called community schools). However, the 3 commitment of the voluntary movement to education has never waned, and even today, a significant percentage of the schools in the English education system are provided on the basis of a partnership between the voluntary sector and the state sector. Today, these schools are named either as a voluntary aided school, voluntary controlled school or a foundation school. In addition to the voluntary sector, there is also private sector involvement in England’s education system. However, this has typically taken the form of private funded independent schools which run alongside state funded schools. During much of this time, there was little private sector involvement in the state funded schools (Machin and Wilson, 2008). However, since the 1988 Education Act, the UK government has actively encouraged schools, which are public-private ventures as a medium for delivering education (for more details, see Machin and Wilson, 2008). The passing of this act led to the creation of a new type of school, which enabled the private sector to work in partnership with the state sector within the same school. These new types of school were called city technology colleges (CTC). In more recent years, the academy school programme has been introduced and, in some important dimensions, can be thought of as a continuation of the CTC scheme. Together, these different school types make up the English secondary education system. Table 1 shows a typology of English secondary schools, listing the different type of school available in the sector and the key features in terms of school autonomy and governance. The Table orders the school types by the amount of autonomy that their governing body/management body has in making schooling decisions, and how dependent they are on the state sector. At the top of the list are registered independent schools which 4 are able to charge fees. They also have a management body which determines the staffing