Schoolingpolicy makers still question whether that is the business of
schools.
We have only limited information on the features of the
schools that might explain these huge differences. In Table
14.2 we replace the name of the school by four characteris-
tics reported in the table. We find that these variables have
little explanatory power. School size has a small positive
effect on GCSE performance. But the average class size in
the school has no effect on anything. Clearly the quality of
teaching makes much more difference than the size of the
class (at least within the existing range of class sizes). This is
consistent with findings from earlier research.^4
The Effects of Individual Primary Schools
Next we look at how primary schools affect their children’s
outcomes while they are still in primary school (see Table
14.3). We try to explain what children are like at age 11,
given how they are at age 8. And we try to explain how they
are at age 8, given how they are at age 7. We again control
Table 14.2. How children’s outcomes at 16 are affected by secondary
school characteristics (ALSPAC) (β- coefficients)Emotional Behavioral Intellectual
School size −0.02 (.02) −0.02 (.02) 0.03 (.01)
Class size −0.00 (.02) −0.01 (.02) 0.01 (.01)
% Free school
meals
0.01 (.02) −0.03 (.03) −0.03 (.01)% English not first
language
0.01 (.02) 0.04 (.02) 0.02 (.01)