I didn’t think time travel was possible but in the world of education it turns out that it is: we’ve been sucked into an alternate reality where we find ourselves debating the merits of selective state education.
This is a debate founded on emotion rather than logic – about political symbols and codes rather than education policy. But the evidence does matter. Ministers say they want an evidence-based profession; the profession agrees. So here is a perfect test case.
Philip Nye of Education Datalab has looked at counties like Kent that have had grammar schools for decades. His research concludes that children who attend grammar schools make more progress than they otherwise would, but children who attend non-selective schools in selective areas make less progress than they would if born elsewhere.
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