The illusion of fair selection: barriers to accessing selective education for the disadvantaged in England

Underrepresentation of disadvantaged students in selective schools attracts global attention. Presenting evidence from England, this study reveals that barriers in accessing selective education exist before selection, as disadvantaged students have a reduced chance of both attending and passing selection tests, even if they have the same level of academic performance. This underrepresentation cannot be fully explained by attainment, implying that disadvantaged families might be reluctant or have difficulties in engaging with selective school applications. However, our simulation also shows that, while conversion to an opt-out system would boost the proportion of disadvantaged students in selective schools, the effect is small (increases from 7.8% to 12%). Our findings thus demonstrate that there are fundamental challenges to equity in selective systems which cannot be substantially attenuated with changes in the selection process or compensatory policies.