The Effects of School Membership on Pupils' Educational Outcomes.

Abstract The article reports some of the major findings of a large‐scale longitudinal study of the progress and development of an age cohort of pupils during the junior years of education. The pupils attended a stratified random sample of 50 Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) primary schools during the period 1980‐84. The focus of the paper is an investigation of the existence and size of the effects of school membership upon these pupils’ progress in a variety of cognitive outcomes (reading, writing and mathematics), attainment in oracy (which was measured only on one occasion), and upon several non‐cognitive outcomes (attendance, attitudes, behaviour and self‐concept). Particular attention is paid to the identification and separation of the effects of school membership from those attributable to background factors, sex and age. For the analysis of the effects of school upon pupils’ progress in cognitive areas, initial attainment in the relevant area is controlled and acts as the baseline against wh...