WE used to have religious schools. Now we have faith schools, and Prime Minister Tony Blair is not alone in believing that they are much better than the other sort. As readers of this column would expect, however, research evidence about the truth of the proposition is equivocal.
At key stage 3 and GCSE, Church of England, Roman Catholic, other Christian schools and Jewish schools do get above-average results (especially the Jewish schools).
When different intakes are allowed, their value-added performances look better too. But the advantages do not span the full range of ages and subjects and it is not possible to be confident that faith is the source of the differences. More research is needed.
The National Foundation for Educational Research has published the executive summary of “The impact of specialist and faith schools on performance?” on its website at http:195.194.2.100researchoutcome_popup.asp?theid=isp
The authors are Sandie Schagen, Deborah Davies, Peter Rudd, and Ian Schagen.
Readers can email suggestions on future Internet Insights to Sam Saunders at JP Saunders@leeds.ac.uk
