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Faith Primary Schools: Better Schools or Better Pupils?

Author

Listed:
  • Steve Gibbons
  • Olmo Silva

Abstract

We provide estimates of the effect of attending a Faith school on educational attainment progress during the Primary education phase in England. We argue that there are no credible instruments for Faith school attendance. Instead, we control for selection on religious schooling by tracking pupils over time and comparing attainments of students who exhibit different levels of commitment to religious education through their choice of Secondary school and residence. Our findings suggest that, once family preferences and selection into religious education are controlled for, Faith schools have only a very small effect on pupil educational progression in Primary school, this effect being between zero and under one-percentile on test scores at age 11, conditional on scores at age 7.

Suggested Citation

  • Steve Gibbons & Olmo Silva, 2006. "Faith Primary Schools: Better Schools or Better Pupils?," CEE Discussion Papers 0072, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:ceedps:0072
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    5. Rebecca Allen, 2007. "Allocating Pupils to Their Nearest Secondary School: The Consequences for Social and Ability Stratification," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(4), pages 751-770, April.
    6. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2002. "An Evaluation of Instrumental Variable Strategies for Estimating the Effects of Catholic Schools," NBER Working Papers 9358, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman, 2008. "Formulating, Identifying and Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(4).
    8. Pedro Carneiro & Claire Crawford & Alissa Goodman, 2007. "The Impact of Early Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills on Later Outcomes," CEE Discussion Papers 0092, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
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    11. Robert J. Barro & Rachel McCleary, 2003. "Religion and Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 9682, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Studies consistently find no academic gains from private schooling, but don't explain why
      by Ian Brown, Head of School, School of Education at University of Wollongong in The Conversation on 2015-04-24 01:20:42

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Andrew Eyles & Stephen Machin & Olmo Silva, 2018. "Academies 2 – The New Batch: The Changing Nature of Academy Schools in England," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(1), pages 121-158, March.
    2. Figlio, D. & Karbownik, K. & Salvanes, K.G., 2016. "Education Research and Administrative Data," Handbook of the Economics of Education,, Elsevier.
    3. Andrew Eyles & Stephen Machin & Olmo Silva, 2015. "Academies 2: The New Batch," CEP Discussion Papers dp1370, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. M. Niaz Asadullah, 2016. "The Effect Of Islamic Secondary School Attendance On Academic Achievement," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 61(04), pages 1-24, September.
    5. Gibbons, Stephen & Silva, Olmo, 2008. "Urban density and pupil attainment," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 631-650, March.
    6. Helena Holmlund & Olmo Silva, 2014. "Targeting Noncognitive Skills to Improve Cognitive Outcomes: Evidence from a Remedial Education Intervention," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(2), pages 126-160.
    7. Gibbons, Stephen & Machin, Stephen & Silva, Olmo, 2013. "Valuing school quality using boundary discontinuity," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 45246, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Chiara Cavaglia & Sandra McNally & Guglielmo Ventura, 2020. "Do Apprenticeships Pay? Evidence for England," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(5), pages 1094-1134, October.
    9. Emily McDool, 2016. "The Effect of Primary Converter Academies on Pupil Performance," Working Papers 2016013, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics.
    10. Gihleb, Rania & Giuntella, Osea, 2017. "Nuns and the effects of catholic schools. Evidence from Vatican II," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 191-213.
    11. Nghiem, Hong Son & Nguyen, Ha Trong & Khanam, Rasheda & Connelly, Luke B., 2015. "Does school type affect cognitive and non-cognitive development in children? Evidence from Australian primary schools," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 55-65.
    12. Rebecca Allen & Anna Vignoles, 2016. "Can school competition improve standards? The case of faith schools in England," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 959-973, May.
    13. Stephen Machin & Olmo Silva, 2013. "School Structure, School Autonomy and the Tail," CEP Reports 29, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    14. Andrew McKendrick & Ian Walker, 2020. "The Roles of Faith and Faith Schooling in Educational, Economic, and Faith Outcomes," Working Papers 302455074, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    15. Darmody, Merike & Smyth, Emer & McCoy, Selina, 2012. "School Sector Variation among Primary Schools in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT221.
    16. Gibbons, Stephen & Machin, Stephen & Silva, Olmo, 2013. "Valuing school quality using boundary discontinuities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 15-28.
    17. Rebecca Allen, 2010. "Does school autonomy improve educational outcomes? Judging the performance of foundation secondary schools in England," DoQSS Working Papers 10-02, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

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