School Admissions after the School Standards and Framework Act: Bringing the LEAs back in?

Abstract

Historically, LEAs were responsible for the local planning and provision of
\nschools. They ‘mattered’ because their organisational strategies and admissions policies
\ncontributed to the structure and equality of opportunities for families and children in their
\nadministrative areas. Some moved ahead with comprehensive schools earlier and faster
\nthan others, and some retained selection. Alongside admissions policies, these activites in
\nturn shaped and reproduced the extent to which local schools were socially segregated.
\nLEA capacity to shape the local school system was always constrained by the existence of
\nthe faith-based ‘voluntary’ schools sector and was further diminished, post-1988, by
\nself-governing grant-maintained (GM) schools. The 1998 Schools Standards and
\nFramework Act brought LEAs back into the admissions arena. In this paper we examine
\nLEAs’ admissions policies and the extent to which these regulate local patterns of
\nsocio-economic segregation between schools. In this study we draw on a sample of 74
\nLEAs to explore these issues. Our � ndings point to some interesting paradoxes, most
\nnotably the fact that the most commonly used criterion in the allocation of students to
\nplaces, catchment areas, is likely to create and sustain socio-economically segregated
\npatterns of secondary schooling because these are linked in complex ways to residential
\nsegregation. We also show that selective education is strongly associated with high levels
\nof strati� ed schooling and that voluntary and specialist schools also contribute to local
\npatterns of school segregation.