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Journal article

School reforms and pupil performance


The relationship between school reforms, specifically those involving the introduction of new school types, and pupil performance is studied. The particular context is the introduction of academy schools in England, but related evidence on Swedish free schools and US charter schools is also presented. The empirical evidence shows a positive causal impact of the conversion of disadvantaged schools to academies on end of school pupil performance and on the subsequent probability of degree completion at university. There is heterogeneity in this impact, such that more disadvantaged pupils and those attending London academies experience bigger performance improvements.


Andrew Eyles, Claudia Hupkau and Stephen Machin

1 August 2016


Labour Economics 41, pp.9-19, 2016


DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2016.05.004

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092753711630015X

This Journal article is published under the centre's Education and skills programme.

This publication comes under the following theme: School performance: Institutional environment