Justin Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the efficacy of grammar stream programmes in comprehensive schools.

Nick Gibb

The Government is committed to enabling all children to fulfil their potential by delivering a school system that works for everyone.

The Department has not commissioned any recent research to look at the specific benefits or effects of streaming by ability in comprehensive schools. However, we do know that the vast majority of schools choose to stream by ability over the core subjects.

There are indications that this approach benefits higher-ability pupils. For example, the Educational Endowment Foundation (EEF) evidence review[1] found that on average studies showed that higher attaining pupils make one to two additional months’ progress when set or streamed compared to when taught in mixed ability groups. The EEF found that high attaining pupils benefit from different kinds of grouping, including pull-out classes, accelerated classes and moving up a year.

[1] https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/setting-or-streaming/

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