Professor Sandra McNally

Further education and sixth form colleges are key institutions for facilitating skill acquisition among 16–19 year olds in the UK. They enrol half a school cohort after completion of their lower secondary education, and this includes a disproportionate number from low-income backgrounds. Yet little is known about what could improve performance in these institutions. We conduct the world's first management practices survey in such institutions, and match this to administrative longitudinal data on over 40,000 students. Value-added regressions with rich controls suggest that structured management matters for educational outcomes, especially for students from low-income backgrounds. For this group, in a hypothetical scenario where an individual is moved from a college at the 10th percentile of management practices to the 90th, this would be associated with 8% higher probability of achieving a good high school qualification, nearly half of the educational gap between those from poor and non-poor backgrounds. Hence improving management practices may be an important channel for reducing inequalities.

Further education and sixth form colleges are key institutions for facilitating skill acquisition among 16–19 year olds in the UK. They enrol half a school cohort after completion of their lower secondary education, and this includes a disproportionate number from low-income backgrounds. Yet little is known about what could improve performance in these institutions. We conduct the world's first management practices survey in such institutions, and match this to administrative longitudinal data on over 40,000 students. Value-added regressions with rich controls suggest that structured management matters for educational outcomes, especially for students from low-income backgrounds. For this group, in a hypothetical scenario where an individual is moved from a college at the 10th percentile of management practices to the 90th, this would be associated with 8% higher probability of achieving a good high school qualification, nearly half of the educational gap between those from poor and non-poor backgrounds. Hence improving management practices may be an important channel for reducing inequalities.

Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) have come to take a central place in agri-environmental policy. An important evaluation of the scheme has sought to estimate the value of two ESAs using the contingent valuation method. This paper assesses this evaluation and argues that in practice the method failed to establish a clear and realistic description of the likely outcome of the policy. In a number of respects, the evaluation assumes that the policy will be successful prior to the analysis. These concerns are supported by the evidence available from monitoring studies. In consequence the evaluation is of limited use for the purposes of policy decision-making. There is a need to define the likely outcomes of policy more realistically, recognising the inevitable uncertainty, and to investigate the values of conservation at the margin in order to make such evaluations more relevant to policy development.

There has been a lot of academic interest in the pursuit of diversification activities and off-farm employment by farm household members. This is regarded as an important strategy for mitigating the effects of low agricultural income. One aspect of the debate about these so-called 'Other Gainful Activities' (OGAs) is whether they are associated with any environmental improvement on farms. In this paper, we use three approaches to analyse this issue. We examine whether measures of agricultural intensity are associated with the pursuit of OGAs by farmers and their spouses. We examine whether OGAs are more likely on farms where there is an ESA Management Agreement. Finally, we examine whether OGAs are associated with the farmer's stated environmental intentions. Although we tentatively conclude that there is a relationship between OGA involvement and these measures of environmental performance or concern by farmers, the magnitude of the association is small relative to other variables such as farm size, the type of land use, the form of business and recent agricultural training.

In many countries, important thresholds in examinations act as a gateway to higher levels of education and/or good employment prospects. This paper examines the consequences of just failing a key high stakes national examination in English taken at the end of compulsory schooling in England. It uses unique administrative data to show that students of the same ability have significantly different educational trajectories depending on whether or not they just pass or fail this exam. Three years later, students who just fail to achieve the required threshold have a lower probability of entering an upper-secondary high-level academic or vocational track and of starting tertiary education. Those who fail to pass the threshold are also more likely to drop out of education by age 18, without some form of employment. The moderately high effects of just passing or failing to pass the threshold in this high stakes exam are therefore a source of educational inequality with high potential long-term consequences for those affected

The Delphi technique is a means of aggregating the judgement of a panel of experts in order to improve the quality of decision-making. This paper provides a case study of the technique by undertaking a three-round Delphi study to determine a package of best available techniques to reduce nitrogen emissions from a poultry unit under the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (IPPC). Forms of nitrogen addressed included ammonia (NH 3), nitrous oxide (N 2O) nitrogen oxides (NO x ), dusts and nitrate (NO 3 −), with the study providing a means to prioritise the pollution concerns on different spatial scales. The priority pollutant issues were the contribution of NH 3 to eutrophication, the global cooling effect of NH 4 + aerosol, the role of NH 4 + as a vector for atmospheric transport of NO x and SO 2, the contribution of N 2O to global warming, and NO 3 − leaching. Reduced nitrogen (NH x ) was rated as a priority on all scales, while N 2O and NO 3 − were rated as priorities only on global and local scales, respectively. The study indicated the need for abatement techniques at each stage of poultry rearing and waste management, with particular attention to reduce NH 3 emissions, reflecting the priority pollutant concerns. Measures identified by the panel include maintenance of dry litter, low emission removal of litter from housing and storage of litter under cover. Once the litter has left the farm, this should either be used as a biofuel for electricity generation or rapidly incorporated into agricultural soils. The amounts and timing of manure application should be tuned to crop needs. Uncertainties in the Delphi technique limit its suitability as a stand-alone decision making tool. However, the Delphi technique proved useful in identifying priority pollutant issues, areas of agreement, disagreement and where information is lacking. This demonstrates its use when dealing with the complex issues of prioritising pollution issues and abatement approaches.

Mental health problems have been rising internationally. The link between poor mental health and low educational outcomes is particularly interesting in the case of the UK which has a low international ranking both on measures of child wellbeing and the probability of early drop-out from the labour market and education. We study this issue using a large longitudinal study of a recent cohort of teenagers in England. We use the General Health Questionnaire to derive measures of poor mental health. We find a large negative association between being at risk of poor mental health and educational outcomes — where we consider examination results before leaving compulsory education and the probability of being ‘not in education, employment or training’ at a young age. Results are stronger for girls and also vary according to the different components of the mental health measure. It is important for practitioners and policy makers to pay attention to symptoms of poor mental health. •We find a strong association between poor mental health and education/drop-out.•Anhedonia and social dysfunction’ is the most influential component.•The mental health/drop-out association is not attributable to exam performance.•A simple screening device is a useful predictor of mental health and vulnerability.

University Technical Colleges (UTCs) were introduced in England in 2010. They are hybrid schools which combine general and vocational education and have conventional and unconventional entry ages. Their introduction provides an opportunity to study the impact of technical education offered by these new schools on academic and vocational education and on the short-term workforce outcomes of students they enrol. An instrumental variable approach is adopted to evaluate the causal effect of attending a UTC. This takes advantage of geographic and cross-cohort variation in exposure to UTCs. For pupils who enter at the unconventional age 14, UTCs dramatically reduce their academic achievement on national exams at age 16. By contrast, for students who enter at the conventional age of 16, UTCs boost vocational achievement without harming academic achievement. They also improve achievement in STEM qualifications, enrolment in apprenticeships, employment prospects (by age 19) and probability of going on to study STEM at university

Given the series of crises in agriculture, farm diversification is an increasingly relevant strategy for farmers. Trends in various types of diversification are described in England and Wales — as recorded in the Farm Business Survey. Although hirework is the most frequently reported diversification activity, renting out of farm buildings is the only activity considered here where there has been a substantial increase in participation over the last 10 years. Furthermore, for most types of diversification, the rate of exit is similar in magnitude to that of entry. When they are present, most types of diversification make a relatively small contribution to average business income. The probability of observing diversification is strongly related to farm size and type. A particular concern is that most types of diversification activities considered here may be more difficult to pursue on small farms, especially within less favoured areas.

Over the past 50 years, large areas of agricultural land have been drained and put into intensive agricultural production. Increasing attention is now being paid to the issue of restoring wetland areas and promoting environmental benefits. Collective action is important for wetland restoration, both because of the physical interactions among landholders and because of the cost saving and enhanced environmental benefit that can be achieved at a larger scale. Policy needs to be geared towards facilitating co-operation among farmers if environmental schemes are to be effective in enabling wetland restoration. Internal Drainage Boards have been primarily involved with securing of land drainage for local landholders. They now have a formal responsibility to further nature conservation but could take a more proactive role in promoting wetland restoration. They have good information on local water management options and are well placed to co-ordinate actions for restoration. Agri-environment policy could be redirected in order to promote collective action for wetland restoration.

With the rise of polarization and extremism, the question of how best to transmit civic virtues across generations is more acute than ever. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that schools can be the place for this transmission by empowering students and gathering them around concrete and democratically chosen objectives. We draw on an RCT implemented in a large sample of middle schools in three European countries. The evaluated program leads students to carry out collective citizenship projects in their immediate communities under the supervision of teachers trained in student-centered teaching methods. The program significantly increases student altruism, their political self-efficacy as well as the quality of their relationship with their classmates and their respect for the rules of school life (less sanctions and absenteeism). In all three countries, the benefits are greater for students with the highest level of altruism and interest in politics at baseline. Investments made at an early age appear to be complement to those made during adolescence for the production of civic virtues.

Background Political devolution occurred in the UK in 1998-99, following many years in which some degree of policy administration had been devolved to the four nations. Since devolution, all four countries of the UK have pursued increasingly divergent education policies. This is true in England in particular, where diversity, choice and competition have become a key focus of education policy. This political divergence between the four nations gives us the opportunity to appraise differences and similarities in educational policies and outcomes in the four UK nations. Purpose This article is a comparative review of the education reforms of the constituent countries of the UK, with particular focus on value for money. The main aims of the article are to (1) outline the key differences in the educational systems in terms of school type, choice and competition, educational resources and pedagogy; (2) describe how the countries compare in terms of educational attainment during compulsory schooling years; (3) examine inequalities in educational attainment, such as by gender and socio-economic status, and how the different countries compare on these measures; and (4) examine existing evidence on the effectiveness and value for money of different education policies and programmes in the different countries. Sources of evidence We use a variety of sources of evidence to achieve these aims. We undertake a literature review of the existing evidence on the effectiveness and value for money of different programmes and policies that have taken place across the UK. We also collate and undertake an analysis of data on educational outcomes from published statistics sourced from the national statistics offices of each country. It is easier to be confident about comparisons based on international data sets because in this case all students will have taken exactly the same test, so we also compile and analyse survey data from international surveys of educational attainment such as PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS. Main argument We argue that while the systems of the four countries of the UK are becoming increasingly divergent, there are still many similarities. This is borne out in the evidence on educational outcomes, which show many similarities between the four countries. Because of these similarities, the positive impacts of many of the policies and programmes adopted in England may have relevance for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Conclusions We find evidence that increasing school resources improves results, and also that more targeted spending benefits able pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. We also find positive results of several programmes. Evaluating the education policies of the four nations in terms of value for money - and therefore whether they have scope to be adopted - represents a bigger challenge. Whilst the value for money of certain policies - such as the literacy hour - can be reasonably well measured, for many other policies, value for money is hard to pin down accurately. However, this forms an important direction for future research.

Some countries, notably those which have long had a weak history of vocational education like the UK and the US, have recently seen a rapid expansion of hybrid schools which provide both general and vocational education. England introduced ‘University Technical Colleges’ (UTCs) in 2010 for students aged 14 to 18. 49 UTCs have been created since then. We use a spatial instrumental variable approach based on geographical availability to evaluate the causal effect of attending a UTC on student academic and vocational achievement and on their labour market outcomes. For those pupils who enter the UTC at a non-standard transition age of 14, UTCs dramatically reduce their academic achievement on national exams at age 16. However, for students who enter at a more conventional transition age of 16, UTCs boost vocational achievement without harming academic achievement. They also improve achievement in STEM qualifications, and enrolment in apprenticeships. By age 19, UTC students are less likely to be unemployed and more likely to study STEM at university

The widening gap between the average educational achievement of boys and girls has been the subject of much discussion. This gap is especially controversial for students taking national exams at the end of their compulsory education. However, the gender gap is also apparent at earlier and at later stages of education. In this paper, we analyse changes over time in the gender achievement gap at the different stages of compulsory education in English schools. We first use a combination of data sources to paint a picture of how gender gaps have evolved over time and in what context they are most marked. Then we consider possible explanations for the observed gender gaps. We look at the relevance of school inputs, teaching practice, and the examination system for explaining the gender gap. We also discuss the potential influence of wider social and economic changes as reflected, for example, in the much higher education levels of mothers relative to those of previous generations. Analysis of this issue is important in the context of research on the gender wage gap. However, it is also raises policy-relevant issues in relation to whether changes in the school system can effect a change in the gender gap in educational achievement.

This paper studies the effect of free pre-school education on child outcomes in primary school. We exploit the staggered implementation of free part-time pre-school for three-yearolds across Local Education Authorities in England in the early 2000s. The policy led to small improvements in attainment at age five, with no apparent benefits by age 11. We argue that this is because the expansion of free places largely crowded out privately paid care, with small changes in total participation, and was achieved through an increase in private provision, where quality is lower on average than in the public sector.

Many students appear to leave full-time education too soon, despite the possibility of high returns from further investment in their education. One contributory factor may be insufficient information about the potential consequences of their choices. We investigate students’ receptiveness to an information campaign about the costs and benefits of pursuing postcompulsory education. Our results show that students with higher expected net benefits from accessing information are more likely to avail themselves of the opportunity presented by our experiment. Their intention to stay on in post-16 education is strongly affected by the experiment, though not their intention to apply to university. Effects are heterogeneous by family background and gender.

The change of government in 2010 provoked a large structural change in the English education landscape. Unexpectedly, the new government offered primary schools the chance to have ‘the freedom and the power to take control of their own destiny’, with better performing schools given a green light to convert to become an academy school on a fast track. In England, schools that become academies have more freedom over many ways in which they operate, including the curriculum, staff pay, the length of the school day and the shape of the academic year. However, the change to allow primary school academisation has been controversial. In this paper, we study the effect for the first primary schools that became academies. While the international literature provides growing evidence on the effects of school autonomy in a variety of contexts, little is known about the effects of autonomy on primary schools (which are typically much smaller than secondary schools) and in contexts where the school is not deemed to be failing or disadvantaged. The key finding is that schools did change their modes of operation after the exogenous policy change, but at the primary phase of schooling, academisation did not lead to improved pupil performance.

•We show how teaching assistants might be used to improve chidren's literacy.•TAs are trained to deliver structured materials to groups of young children aged 5–6.•An ICT and Non-ICT version of the treatment are tested using a RCT.•Both are effective, although the Non-ICT intervention has a bigger effect.•Those from a lower socio-economic background benefit to a greater extent. Many students still leave school without a good grasp of basic literacy, despite the negative implications for future educational and labour market outcomes. We evaluate how resources may be used within classrooms to reinforce the teaching of literacy. Specifically, teaching assistants are trained to deliver a tightly structured package of materials to groups of young children aged 5–6. The training is randomly allocated between and within schools. Within schools, teaching assistants are randomly assigned to receive training in either computer-aided instruction or the paper equivalent. Both interventions have a short-term impact on children's reading scores, although the effect is bigger for the paper intervention and more enduring in the subsequent year. This paper shows how teaching assistants can be used to better effect within schools, and at a low cost.

The share of women achieving tertiary education has increased rapidly over time and now exceeds that of men in most OECD countries. However, women are severely under-represented in maths-intensive science fields, which are generally referred to as STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths). The under-representation of women in these subject areas has received a great deal of attention. This is because these fields are seen to be especially important for productivity and economic growth and are associated with occupations that have higher earnings. Subject of degree is an important part of the explanation for the gender wage gap. The aim of this paper is to review evidence on explanations for the STEM gap in tertiary education. This starts with statistics about background context and evidence on how well-prepared male and female students may be for studying STEM at a later stage. I then discuss what the literature has to say about the role of personal attributes: namely confidence, self-efficacy and competitiveness and the role of preferences and expectations. I go on to discuss features of the educational context thought to be important for influencing attributes and preferences (or mediating their effects): peers; teachers; role models; and curriculum. I then briefly discuss broader cultural influences. I use the literature reviewed to discuss policy implications.

The importance of apprenticeships for early labour market transitions varies across countries and over time. In recent times, there has been a policy drive to increase the number of people undertaking apprenticeships in England. This is regarded as important for addressing poor productivity. We investigate whether there is a positive return to undertaking an apprenticeship for young people. We use detailed administrative data to track recent cohorts of young school leavers as they transition to the labour market. Our results suggest that apprenticeships lead to a positive average earnings return (at least in the short run), although there is stark variation between sectors. This is an important driver of the gender gap in earnings.

The UK change of government in 2010 provoked a large structural change in the English education landscape. Unexpectedly, the new government offered primary schools the chance to have ‘the freedom and the power to take control of their own destiny’, with better performing schools given a green light to fast track convert to become an academy school. In England, schools that become academies have more freedom over many ways in which they operate, including curriculum design, budgets, staffing issues and the shape of the academic year. However, the change to allow primary school academisation has been controversial. This paper reports estimates of the causal effect of academy enrolment on primary school pupils. While the international literature provides growing evidence on the effect of school autonomy in a variety of contexts, little is known about the effect of autonomy on primary schools (which are typically much smaller than secondary schools) and in contexts where the converting school is not deemed to be failing or disadvantaged. The key findings are that English primary schools did change their mode of operation after the exogenous policy change, utilising more autonomy and changing spending behaviour, but this did not lead to improved pupil performance.

In many countries, important thresholds in examinations act as a gateway to higher levels of education and/or improved employment prospects. This paper examines the consequences of just failing a particularly important high stakes national examination taken at the end of compulsory schooling in England. It uses unique administrative data, including full information on both initial and regraded exam marks, to show that students of the same ability have significantly different educational trajectories depending on whether they just pass or fail this exam. Three years later, students who just fail to achieve the required threshold have a lower probability of entering an upper-secondary high-level academic or vocational track and of starting tertiary education. Those who fail to pass the threshold are also more likely to drop out of education by age 18, without some form of employment. The moderately high effects of just passing or failing to pass the threshold in this high-stakes exam has high potential long-term consequences for those affected.

Der Anteil der Frauen mit Hochschulausbildung hat im Laufe der Zeit rapide zugenommen und übersteigt mittlerweile den der Männer. In mathematikintensiven naturwissenschaftlichen Feldern (allgemein bekannt als MINT-Fächer, also Mathematik, Informatik, Naturwissenschaft und Technik) sind Frauen jedoch stark unterrepräsentiert. Aufgrund der wirtschaftlichen Bedeutung, die diesen Bereichen zugeschrieben wird, ist es wichtig, mehr Frauen zu ermutigen, sich in ihrer Bildungskarriere den MINT-Fächern zuzuwenden und dort zu verbleiben. Dies würde auch die berufliche Segregation und das geschlechtsspezifische Lohngefälle verringern, denn die durchschnittlichen Gehälter in mathematikintensiven Bereichen sind hoch. Dieser Bericht präsentiert einige gängige politisch relevante Themen, die sich aus der Literaturrecherche ergeben haben.

This paper shows that schools can foster the transmission of civic virtues by helping students to develop concrete, democratically chosen , collective projects. We draw on a RCT implemented in 200 middle schools in three countries. The program leads students to conduct citizenship projects in their communities under the supervision of teachers trained in the intervention. The intervention caused a decline in absenteeism and disciplinary sanctions at school, alongside improved academic achievement. It also led students to diversify their friendship network. The program has stronger effects when implemented by teachers who are initially more involved in the life of the school. JEL: I20; I24; J24

In common with other OECD countries, there is a gender gap in educational achievement in England favouring girls. This carries through to tertiary education. On the other hand, boys are far more likely to engage in STEM in post-16 vocational education and at university. The underachievement of boys overall, but over-representation in STEM, presents significant challenges for policy. This paper documents changes in the gender gap over the last 20 years in England and discusses findings in the light of international evidence. It concludes that education policies, in academic and in vocational spheres, can be designed to reduce gender inequalities that exist in both.

The share of women achieving tertiary education has increased rapidly over time and now exceeds that of men. Yet they are severely under-represented in maths-intensive science fields (generally known as science, technology, engineering and maths or STEM). Because of the economic importance attached to these fields, it is important to encourage more women to enter and remain in relevant subject areas throughout their education. This would also reduce occupational segregation and the gender wage gap, as maths-intensive fields are well-paid on average. This report presents some common themes with policy relevance that emerge from the literature.

Grâce aux contributions des meilleurs spécialistes actuels de la sociologie et des politiques d'éducation, les lecteurs pourront donc découvrir ici les pistes de la recherche pour améliorer l'école, en identifiant les enjeux et défis ...

With the rise of polarization and extremism, the question of how best to transmit civic virtues across generations is more acute than ever. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that schools can be the place for this transmission by empowering students and gathering them around concrete and democratically chosen objectives. We draw on an RCT implemented in a large sample of middle schools in three European countries. The evaluated program leads students to carry out collective citizenship projects in their immediate communities under the supervision of teachers trained in student-centered teaching methods. The program significantly increases student altruism, their political self-efficacy as well as the quality of their relationship with their classmates and their respect for the rules of school life (less sanctions and absenteeism). In all three countries, the benefits are greater for students with the highest level of altruism and interest in politics at baseline. Investments made at an early age appear to be complement to those made during adolescence for the production of civic virtues.

Further Education colleges are a key way in which 16-19 year olds acquire skills in the UK (much like US Community Colleges), especially those from low income backgrounds. Yet, little is known about what could improve performance in these institutions. We design and conduct the world’s first management practices survey in these colleges (based on the World Management Survey) and match this to administrative longitudinal data on over 40,000 students. Value added regressions with rich controls suggest that structured management matters for educational outcomes (e.g. upper secondary qualifications), especially for students from low-income backgrounds. In a hypothetical scenario where a learner is moved from a college at the 10th percentile of management practices to the 90th, this would be associated with 8% higher probability of achieving a good high school qualification, which is nearly half of the educational gap between those from poor and non-poor backgrounds. Hence, improving management practices may be an important channel for reducing inequalities

Many students still leave school without a good grasp of basic literacy, despite the negative implications for future educational and labour market outcomes. We evaluate a programme that involves changing how resources are used within classrooms to reinforce the teaching of literacy. Specifically, the programme involves training teaching assistants to deliver a tightly structured package of materials to groups of young children. Further, we compare the effectiveness of computer-aided instruction using available software with the paper equivalent. We implement the experiment in the context of a Randomised Control Trial in English schools. Both interventions have a short-term impact on children's reading scores, although the effect is bigger for the paper intervention and more enduring in the subsequent year. This paper shows how teaching assistants can be used to better effect within schools, and at a low cost.

Zuerst erläutert der Beitrag die Besonderheiten und die aktuelle Lage der Berufsausbildung/Lehre in England als Kombination von Arbeit und Lernen und Lebensphase, die zwischen der Schulzeit und dem Eintritt in den Arbeitsmarkt liegt. Für über die Hälfte der Auszubildenden trifft das aktuell in England nicht zu, sie sind über 25 Jahre alt und haben schon vor der Lehrzeit für ihren Arbeitgeber gearbeitet. Weiter geht es im Beitrag um quantitative Veränderungen in der Zeit und um den Zielkonflikt von Qualität und Quantität in der Berufsausbildung. Der folgende Abschnitt zeichnet anhand der amtlichen Statistik den beruflichen Weg und Bildungsgang von Schulabsolventen aus dem Jahr 2003 zwischen dem Verlassen der Schule nach der Sekundärstufe (Abschluss: General Certificate of Secondary Education - GCSE) über die Ausbildungszeit (12 bis 16 Monate) bis zum Eintritt in das Arbeitsleben nach und zieht dabei Vergleiche zu den Ländern mit einem 'klassischen' Dualen Ausbildungssystem. Schließlich geht es um die Frage: 'Zahlt sich eine Lehre aus?', wobei die Löhne von 28-jährigen ehemaligen Absolventen einer Lehre Gleichaltrigen mit einem anderen Ausbildungsweg gegenübergestellt werden, was bei einem Maschinenbauer zu ähnlichen Löhnen führen kann wie bei einem Ingenieur, am unteren Ende aber auch zu geringen Löhnen: Beispiel Dienstleistungsberufe wie Friseur und Erzieher. Die Untersuchung enthält quantitative Daten. Forschungsmethode: empirisch; Metaanalyse. Die Untersuchung bezieht sich auf den Zeitraum 2003 bis 2016. (IAB).

A significant number of people have very low levels of literacy in many OECD countries. This paper studies a national change in policy and practice in England that refocused the teaching of reading around “synthetic phonics.” This was a low-cost intervention that targeted the pedagogy of existing teachers. We evaluate the pilot and first phase of the national rollout. While strong initial effects tend to fade out on average, they persist for those with children with a higher initial propensity to struggle with reading. As a result, this program helped narrow the gap between disadvantaged pupils and other groups.

One rationale for devolution is that local decision makers may be well placed to adapt national policies to the local context. We test whether such adaptation helps meet programme objectives in the case of the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers. Originally a national programme, aimed at incentivising employers to take on apprentices, reforms a few years into operation gave some Local Authorities negotiated flexibilities in how the scheme operated. We consider the impact of the national scheme and then use a difference-in-differences approach to test whether flexibility led to an increase in the number of apprenticeship starts in devolved areas relative to control groups. We find that flexibility had zero effect. There is suggestive evidence that this is because flexibilities were negotiated on the wrong margins.

A very small number of young people enter youth custody between age 16 and 18 (about 4 in 1000 males), yet the consequences are severe. They spend an average of 7 months in youth custody and such incarceration has been related to negative outcomes in the longer term even if they can establish themselves in the labour market. In this paper, we evaluate whether there is a relationship between GCSE qualifications in English and maths and the probability of youth custody using administrative data in England. We are hindered in this because the majority of young people who end up in youth custody are not entered or fail their GCSEs in these subjects. Although regression results are consistent with educational achievement being a factor in why people end up in youth custody, they strongly suggest that both non-entry/low achievement and youth custody are correlated with severe vulnerabilities which are partially picked up by the explanatory variables available in administrative data (in particular indicators for special needs, disadvantage and being from some ethnic minority groups). Another interesting insight is that for many, problems only emerge (or at least become evident) in early or middle adolescence. [This paper forms part of a larger project funded by the Nuffield Foundation "Youth custody: Educational influences and labour market consequences."]

Most students do not follow the ‘academic track’ (i.e. A-levels) after leaving school and only about a third of students go to university before the age of 20. Yet progression routes for the majority that do not take this path but opt for vocational post-compulsory education are not as well-known, which partly has to do with the complexity of the vocational education system and the difficulty of deciphering available data. If we are to tackle long-standing problems of low social mobility and a long tail of underachievers, it is essential that post-16 vocational options come under proper scrutiny. This paper is a step in that direction. We use linked administrative data to track decisions made by all students in England who left compulsory education after having undertaken the national examination -the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)- at age 16 in the year 2009/10. We track them up to the age of 21, as they progress through the education system and (for some) into the labour market. We categorise the many different types of post-16 qualifications into several broad categories and we look at the probability of achieving various educational and early labour market outcomes, conditional on the path chosen at age 17. We also take into account the influence of demographics, prior attainment and the secondary school attended. Our findings illustrate the strong inequality apparently generated by routes chosen at age 17, even whilst controlling for prior attainment and schooling up to that point.

La proportion de femmes obtenant un diplôme de l'enseignement supérieur a augmenté rapidement au fil du temps et dépasse désormais celle des hommes. Elles sont pourtant fortement sous-représentées dans les domaines scientifiques très mathématiques (généralement appelés Science, Technologie, Ingénierie et Mathématiques ou STIM). En raison de l'importance économique de ces domaines, il est important d'encourager davantage de femmes à entrer dans les spécialités pertinentes et à y rester tout au long de leur éducation. Cela réduirait également la ségrégation professionnelle et l'écart salarial entre les sexes, les domaines à forte dimension mathématique étant bien rémunérés en moyenne. Ce rapport présente quelques thèmes communs pertinents qui se dégagent de l'analyse documentaire.

McNally is with the Environmental Science and Policy Research Group at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Huntingdon, UK. c. Book News Inc.

This collection of essays, from leading economic experts on the UK labour market, provides an overview of the key issues concerning the performance of the labour market, and the policy issues surrounding it, with a focus on the recent ...

This collection, with an original introduction by the editors, will be of great interest to academics and students interested in growth, productivity, innovation and economic performance.

We examine the links between various measures of university quality and graduate earnings in the United Kingdom. We explore the implications of using different measures of quality and combining them into an aggregate measure. Our findings suggest a positive return to university quality with an average earnings differential of about 6 percent for a one standard deviation rise in university quality. However, the relationship between university quality and wages is highly non-linear, with a much higher return at the top of the distribution. There is some indication that returns may be increasing over time.

This study exploits spatial anomalies in school funding policy in England to provide new evidence on the impact of resources on student achievement in urban areas. Anomalies arise because the funding allocated to Local Education Authorities (LEA) depends, through a funding formula, on the ‘additional educational needs’ of its population and prices in the district. However, the money each school receives from its LEA is not necessarily related to the school’s own specific local conditions and constraints. This implies that neighbouring schools with similar intakes, operating in the same labour market, facing similar prices, but in different LEAs, can receive very different incomes. We find that these funding disparities give rise to sizeable differences in pupil attainment in national tests at the end of primary school, showing that school resources have an important role to play in improving educational attainment, especially for lower socio-economic groups. The design is geographical boundary discontinuity design which compares neighbouring schools, matched on a proxy for additional educational needs of its students (free school meal entitlement – FSM), in adjacent districts. The key identification requirement is one of conditional ignorability of the level of LEA grant, where conditioning is on geographical location of schools and their proportion of FSM children.

Many students still leave school without a good grasp of basic literacy, despite the negative implications for future educational and labour market outcomes. We evaluate how resources may be used within classrooms to reinforce the teaching of literacy. Specifically, teaching assistants are trained to deliver a tightly structured package of materials to groups of young children aged 5–6. The training is randomly allocated between and within schools. Within schools, teaching assistants are randomly assigned to receive training in either computer-aided instruction or the paper equivalent. Both interventions have a short-term impact on children's reading scores, although the effect is bigger for the paper intervention and more enduring in the subsequent year. This paper shows how teaching assistants can be used to better effect within schools, and at a low cost.