Are Schools Drifting Apart? Intake Stratification in English Secondary Schools

The issue of social segregation in schools has seen a recent resurgence of interest, in the light of policies that have sought to expand parental choice. Most research has focused on segregation along lines of ethnicity or social background. Yet, the real consideration in the back of people's minds seems to be stratification along lines of pupil ability. This paper looks explicitly at this issue using the population of pupils entering secondary schools in England from 1996 to 2002. The study highlights wide disparities between peer-group ability in different schools. However, contrary to popular opinion, almost nothing has changed over these years in terms of the way pupils of different age-11 abilities are sorted into different secondary schools.