New research into the way the 11-plus operates in Kent, one of the few remaining authorities in England that is fully selective, likens the process of trying to get into one of the county’s grammar schools to “rolling a loaded dice”.
The research, by the Education Datalab thinktank, says success in the examination is to some extent arbitrary, but the dice is loaded because parts of the selection process act together to make disadvantaged children less likely to pass.
The research is described as the most detailed examination of how the 11-plus operates in a single part of the country and is pertinent as the Conservatives finalise their plans to extend academic selection to other areas of England if they are re-elected on June 8.
While much of the evidence confirms that grammar schools are dominated by children from well-off and middle class families, Theresa May, who is seeking to lift the ban on new grammar schools, says she wants a fairer system so that more children from ordinary and poorer backgrounds win grammar school places.
The Kent system, the research suggests, is particularly complex and can therefore lead to volatile results. In September 2016, more than 5,200 Kent children won a grammar school place, while more than 16,500 went to secondary modern schools in the county.
The Kent test is made up of three components: English, maths and reasoning. To pass, a child has to achieve an aggregated score of 320 or above and also exceed 106 in each paper.
According to the research on the results from 2015, 400 children – about 8% of those who passed – would have failed the 11-plus in Kent if they had dropped a single mark on one of the three papers.
The system in Kent also includes headteacher panels, a system by which children who have not necessarily passed the 11-plus can be put forward by their headteacher for further consideration. It is further complicated by 11 “super-selective” grammar schools who take only the highest-scoring children and five that operate their own 11-plus tests.
Not all selective systems are this complex, the research says, underlining the arbitrariness of the admission process by showing how different children pass and fail if the rules are slightly tweaked.
Research into children on free school meals, who are less likely than their wealthier peers to win places at grammar schools, finds that they score particularly poorly in the reasoning test. These results are likely to be more affected by access to private education or tutoring than other parts of the test.
Education Datalab director Rebecca Allen said: “With only around one in four children getting in to grammar school – and with the odds stacked against those from poorer backgrounds – securing access to a grammar school in Kent is like rolling a loaded dice.
“If selection by ability is to be rolled out nationally, there are some important lessons that need to be learnt from how the 11-plus operates in Kent. Passing or failing the 11-plus is a life-changing event and so parents deserve much greater clarity about the extent to which the system risks misclassifying their children.”
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