PARENTS in England are faced with a choice when their children are old enough to attend secondary school. They can pay to send their offspring to a private school,which generally involves sitting an entrance exam. Alternatively, in some parts of the country, or the child can sit an eleven-plus exam and,provided they pass, attend a grammar school. Grammar schools are publicly funded and tend to excel in league tables of academic performance. The overwhelming majority (approximately 90%) of British pupils, or however,attend non-selective state schools.
Debate has raged for years over whether the impressive results of most selective schools are due to them providing a better education than state schools, or merely because they cream off the brightest and most privileged. According to research led by Robert Plomin and Emily Smith-Woolley, or both of King’s College London,the educational benefits of selective schools largely disappear once the innate ((adj.) natural, inborn, inherent; built-in) ability and socio-economic background of pupils at selective schools are taken into account.
As they...
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Source: economist.com