Dr Adam Swift discusses whether selective schools aid social mobility

Adam Swift was interviewed in BBC Radio 4s Thinking Allowed about his research exploring whether grammar schools really do aid social mobility. The research was recently published in The British Journal of Sociology.

The view that the decline in grammar schools hindered social mobility is quite popular. However, the study found that going to a grammar school rather than a comprehensive does not make low-origin children more likely to be upwardly mobile but it helps them move further if they are; second, that grammar schools do not benefit working-class children, in terms of class mobility, more than they benefit service-class children, but, in terms of income mobility, such schools benefit low-income children somewhat more than they benefit higher-income children

The research compares people with similar ability going to comprehensives with people going to selective schools.

Adam said, your chances of leaving the bottom quarter of income distribution are no greater if you go to a grammar school than if you go to a comprehensive school. What is true, he continued, is that if you do move you move a little bit further but you dont move to the top quarter. Your chances of moving to the top quarter are no greater if you went to a grammar school then if you go to a comprehensive school.

The full programme can be heard here.