'Excellence in cities'.

The government's Excellence in Cities policy has improved the educational outcomes for secondary school pupils in disadvantaged areas, according to new economic research by Stephen Machin, Sandra McNally and Costas Meghir. But the study also shows that the educational benefits are not equally distributed: the most disadvantaged schools benefit and the effect is concentrated among pupils of medium to high ability.

In Brief: Every child matters?

Sandra McNally and colleagues provide the first comprehensive evaluation of 'special educational needs' programmes.

Big ideas: education

Sandra McNally surveys CEP evaluations of a wide range of school policies in the UK. Education is a key policy instrument for addressing unemployment, rising inequality and falling intergenerational mobility, the social problems that were the focus of the first three contributions to CEP's 'big ideas' series. In the latest overview of the Centre's research, Sandra McNally surveys evaluations of a wide range of school policies in the UK.

The effects of resources across school phases: a summary of recent evidence

This report provides an overview and discussion of the past decade of academic evidence on the causal effects of resources in schooling on students’ outcomes. Early evidence lacked good strategies for estimating the effects of schools resources, leading many people to conclude that spending more on schools had no effect. More recent evidence using better research designs finds that resources do matter, but the range of estimates of the impacts is quite wide. The review devotes special attention to differences across the early years, primary and secondary phases. Theoretical work has indicated that interventions early in a child's life may be more productive than interventions later on. However, although there are more examples of good quality studies on primary schooling, the existing body of empirical work does not lead to a conclusive case in favour of early interventions

Children of the revolution.

New research by Eric Maurin and Sandra McNally reveals that France's short-lived 'revolution' of May 1968 had long-term benefits for the angry students - and later for their children. These findings have important implications for the debate about widening access to higher education.

Gender and Student Achievement in English Schools

The widening gap between the average educational achievement of boys and girls has been the subject of much discussion. This gap is especially controversial for students taking national exams at the end of their compulsory education. However, the gender gap is also apparent at earlier and at later stages of education. In this paper, we analyse changes over time in the gender achievement gap at the different stages of compulsory education. We first use a combination of data sources to paint a picture of how gender gaps have evolved over time and in what context they are most marked. Then we consider possible explanations for the observed gender gaps. We look at the relevance of school inputs, teaching practice and the examination system for explaining the gender gap. We also discuss the potential influence of wider social and economic changes as reflected, for example, in the much higher education of mothers relative to those of previous generations. Analysis of this issue is important in the context of research on the gender wage gap. However, it is also raises policy-relevant issues in relation to whether changes in the school system can effect a change in the gender gap in educational achievement.Gender, Educational Achievement

Widening access to grammar schools: the educational impact in Northern Ireland.

What are the overall effects on educational attainment of widening access to the more academic track? Research by Eric Maurin and Sandra McNally investigates using the 'natural experiment' of the grammar school system in Northern Ireland, which has survived long after its dismantlement in England.