Exploring Dimensions of School Change During Primary Education in England

1
Exploring Dimensions of School Change During
Primary Education in England

• Joan Wilson
• (Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of
  Education, University of London UPTAP research
  group)
• ESRC RMF, St. Catherines College, Oxford July
  1st 2008
• Session 19 Research Methods for UPTAP Using
  Secondary Data (2) Researcher Experiences

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Schools and Child Development

• Schools contribute to the cognitive and
  non-cognitive development of children
• Cognitive skills derive primarily from family
  influences, yet they are also shaped by
  school-based learning
• Non-cognitive skills (or life skills) are a
  function of internal home and schooling
  experiences and the external neighbourhood
  environment
• Influences of schools on child development may be
  altered by spatial changes made by parents
• Parents may make moves that reset spatial
  dimensions of household members children in the
  household may move school alone or move school
  and change residence

3
Focusing on Pupil Mobility

• The purpose of this talk is to discuss dimensions
  of school change
• Literature definition of pupil mobility -
• a child joining or leaving a school at a point
  other than the normal age at which children start
  or finish their education at that school
  whether or not this involves a move of home
  (Dobson and Henthorne, 1999, pp. 5)
• Causes of school change international
  migration, internal migration, individual
  movement and institutional movement

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Pupil Mobility and Government Education Policy

• State schooling provision is organised into two
  forms-
• Community-based admissions are determined by
  residential proximity to a school
• Choice-based admissions reflect school choice
  preferences and parents have more say over the
  school attended
• 1988 Education Reform Act introduced a
  quasi-market for state school education
  provision based on school choice in order to
  drive up education standards
• Parental choice aspect attempts to sever the link
  between where a child lives and range of schools
  that can be attended
• Offering more schooling alternatives conditional
  on pre-existing family residential location

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Research Aims

• To define and measure pure pupil mobility i.e.
  where a pupil changes schools whilst remaining in
  the same place of residence
• To measure combined school-home moves of the
  pupil i.e. where a school change also involves a
  move of home
• Focus is on one cohort of Key Stage 1 to Key
  Stage 2 Primary school pupils in England

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Data (1)

• National Pupil Database Comprises of the PLASC
  and Key Stage datasets
• PLASC administrative Census of all pupils across
  all state schools in England
• Collected annually since January 2001
• Currently 5 longitudinal waves of data available
  (2001/02 to 2005/06)
• Some 8 million pupil observations per wave
• Includes information on individual pupil
  characteristics, measures of social background,
  date of school entry by the pupil and pupil home
  postcode in each wave

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Data (2)

• Key Stage test score data Available in the NPD
  since 1997/98 for KS1 pupils (aged 6/7) and since
  1995/96 for KS2 pupils (aged 10/11)
• PLASC waves can be matched to each other and to
  the KS data using a unique, anonymous pupil
  identifier
• Pupils taking their KS1 exams in Summer 2002 and
  their KS2 exams in Summer 2006 are merged
  together and are linked to PLASC waves 2001/02 to
  2005/06

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Structure of the KS12 Cohort
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Measuring Mobility in the KS12 Cohort (1)

• Mobility is measured using PLASC indicators on
  pupil date of school entry (school moves) and
  pupil home postcode (home moves)
• Pupil mobility 1 if date of school entry in
  year t1 ? date of school entry in year t
• Home mobility 1 if home postcode of the pupil
  in year t1 ? home postcode of the pupil in year
  t
• Pupil mobility excludes required school moves,
  such as from Infant to Junior school, First to
  Junior school, First to Middle school. Focus only
  on moves at non-standard times
• Pupil and home mobility imputations are made to
  the date of school entry and home postcode, error
  corrections are also made to the latter.

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Measuring Mobility in the KS12 Cohort (2)
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Sample Size of the KS12 Cohort
Full sample KS12 cohort member has an
observation on their date of school entry and
home postcode in every PLASC waveInitial full
sample uses the original home postcode prior to
any imputations or correctionsNew full sample
indicates the number of additional full pupil
observations obtained following
imputationsImputations increase the sample size
by approx 1.3 from the initial full amount
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Estimating School Moves and Home Moves
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Further Research Areas

• Estimating September entry into every school
  joined
• Assessing the pupil characteristics of movers by
  their type using PLASC indicators
• Looking at the quality of schools pupils move
  from and to using league table details
• Addressing pure home mobility and home-school
  moves