Estimating the causal effects of academisation of English schools with the data from the National Pupil Database

Yi Liu, Alexey Bessudnov, Alison Black, Brahm Norwich

Abstract

Using administrative data from the National Pupil Database and combining it with publicly available data on school institutional history, we are able to construct extensive longitudinal samples of pupil cohorts and academisation school cohorts from 2003 to 2015. Utilising both from aggregate school level and individual level features, we study the various aspects of academisation on educational inclusiveness by modelling the admissions, re-classifications and potential exclusions on pupils with SEN from the contemporaneous and follow-up effects of academisation events. In addition, we examine the adequacy and effectiveness in causality modelling in a educational context under various regimes of modelling frameworks. The analysis to date suggests that academisation events have small negative impacts in educational inclusiveness. Specifically, we find that pupils with SEN are more likely to register with non-SEN in academised schools in the treatment group. In addition, these negative effects are found to remain statistically significant several periods after occurrence of the event.