Academies Increase Divisions Says Study

A study published to coincide with the start of the new school year has concluded that academies increase divisions between the rich and the poor because parents are given too much choice.

The research, conducted by the University of Durham, says that “outstanding” academies were found to have much lower rates of children eligible for free school meals than the national average, as did faith schools and the country’s 164 remaining grammar schools.

However, the trend towards more segregation was more marked in converter academies, which are those allowed to convert by Education Secretary Michael Gove, than in the original academies set up under the then Labour government, which concentrated on replacing failing schools in disadvantaged areas. This is thought likely to be as a result of these schools having fewer pupils from better-off homes in their catchment areas.

The study found that segregation by poverty is highest in areas with fewest ‘run of the mill’ schools and lowest in areas with few independent, selective, faith-based, foundation, city technology colleges or academy schools.

This mirrors some research abroad into the free school system in Sweden, used as a model for the converter academies, which also indicated that it led to greater segregation in schools.

The study found that the local authority to have the highest level of segregation was Trafford in Greater Manchester, which is one of the few in the country to retain a fully selective education system.

Research leader, Professor Stephen Gorard, said that any differentiated type of school, including faith-based, foundation and fee-paying, tends to be linked to higher local levels of segregation because of the choice involved.

Meanwhile, maintained schools, meaning those funded by the Government via local authorities, and non-selective ‘bog-standard’ schools, as he calls them, are strongly linked to lower segregation.”

However, the report also found that levels of segregation throughout the system were decreasing, with pupils eligible for free school meals having become more evenly distributed across England’s school system.