Faith schools: the evidence
Over a third of schools in Britain are faith schools, yet their place within public education systems remains deeply contested.
Proponents of faith schools claim that they improve parental choice, achieve superior educational outcomes, and are better at promoting moral values. The evidence from the research strongly contests these claims.
Such research is often piecemeal and difficult to access, making it hard to gain a comprehensive view of the debate. This research bank is intended as a valuable resource for policymakers, politicians, academics and anyone else interested in the ongoing debate around faith schools in Britain.
Each entry provides an at-a-glance overview of the key evidence and central arguments made in a different study. The research bank is arranged chronologically within a number of key sections: social cohesion; performance; school choice; values; and public opinion.
Together, the evidence provides a compelling and comprehensive case against state-funded faith schools.
Choice and admissions
One of the main arguments made in favour of faith schools is that they increase diversity and choice by enabling parents to have their children educated according to their own faith tradition. This section points to evidence of the opposite effect. Faith schools restrict school choice for parents who do not share the religion of their local school. Some parents are left with little option but a faith school, while others face restricted access to local schools through the use of unfair admissions procedures. Some critics have also seriously questioned the consumerist framing of school issues around choice.
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New Settlement Revised: Religion and Belief in Schools
C. Clarke and L. Woodhead (July 2018), Westminster Faith Debates.
This report updates an earlier Westminster Faith Debates report from 2015. It restates many of the previous conclusions but makes a variety of new recommendations. The authors claim that 'faith schools have an important place in our society and school system' and that the goal of government policy 'should be to help faith schools to flourish, in a way that promotes a tolerant and inclusive society which is well informed about religion and belief'. A number of critical areas are also highlighted. The authors restate their earlier view that 'the country needs to move strongly in the direction of reducing the number of schools … which include faith as a criterion for admission', and claim that, while it is 'entirely appropriate' for faith schools to 'have their own ethos', there is 'no reason at all' why this should depend on selection criteria. They also note that employment policies have in some cases 'led to injustice' (although 'in principle' they claim that 'it is reasonable to employ some people who understand and accept the religion in the school in which they teach').
The report makes a variety of recommendations. These include requiring faith schools to promote inclusivity, developing closer relationships between schools and local faith communities, establishing twinning arrangements with schools not of their faith and 'placing an independent member or director who has a different religion or belief on the governing body'. The report also recommends that the use of faith as an admission criterion should be reduced and that employment practices be kept 'under review, given legitimate concerns about their necessity and their effects'.
A PDF copy of this report is available to download. Click here to access.
Secondary school admissions in London 2001 to 2015: compliance, complexity and control. West, Anne and Hind, Audrey (2016), Clare Market Papers, 20. London School of Economics and Political Science.
The authors present an analysis of London secondary schools' admissions between 2001 and 2015, at a local and individual school level. Some schools that are responsible for their admissions – especially those with a religious character (faith schools) but some academies with no religious character – have complex arrangements; the complexity is compounded when looked at across an area, with a high number of admissions criteria, categories of places, and combinations of different arrangements (including banding, random allocation and partial selection by aptitude)
The authors find that whilst compliance is high as far as certain admissions arrangements are concerned (e.g., prioritising looking after children and not interviewing pupils or parents), problems remain. In particular, some admissions arrangements are complex and there is a concern that with increasing academisation and more schools controlling their admissions, there will be greater complexity in admissions and further issues will arise. The complexity raises concerns that schools are choosing pupils rather than parents choosing schools for their children, which is too commonly the case with faith-based schools.
The paper highlights that schools in an area, facilitated by the local authority, should agree on the best way to ensure 'fair accesses to all schools especially for children from disadvantaged families. This includes the following suggestions presented by the authors. The government should provide additional templates of admissions arrangements to assist with establishing a genuine level playing field across an area. These could be used to decide the most appropriate combinations across the area to ensure access to schools for all children and, in addition, equitable access across different social groups. This would help with individuals who live near a faith-based school but are struggling to get their child a place there because they do not practice the faith which is being carried out. With greater diversity and exposure to different ways of life and culture, this would then contribute to the phasing out of faith schools.
No schools should carry out their admissions – that is, decide if applicants meet the admissions criteria – as the incentives for schools to 'choose' the most desirable pupils are great given the quasi-market that is in operation. Opportunities to 'select in' and 'select out' are particularly great when parents where parents and families are 'known' to the school. Allocations to schools should be made according to published admissions criteria and administered by an independent body. Often the case, the parents who are known to the school are middle-class parents who possess great social and cultural capital and use this to their advantage.
Academically there should be mixed intakes – there is a strong argument for groups of schools to work collaboratively with local authorities to ensure this, with areawide banding being incentivised
A PDF copy of this report is available to download Click here for the journal
Mixed Signals:
The Discrepancy Between What the Church Preaches and What it Practises About Religious Selection at its State-Funded Schools. A report by the Accord Coalition for Inclusive Education for the Fair Admissions Campaign (November 2017).
This report examines the admissions policies of state-funded faith schools. It shows that half of Church of England faith schools were operating a discriminatory policy and challenges the view, often stated by the Church of England, that its faith schools are inclusive, community schools. The report notes that: 'at best, the inclusive assertions by national Church figures are inaccurate and therefore misleading'. Detailed research by the Fair Admissions Campaign in 2013 found that 49.7% of places at Church of England secondary schools could be filled through religiously discriminatory selection criteria. The figure for Catholic schools was 99.8%.
The report goes to show how religious selection leads to social segregation on religious, ethnic and socio-economic grounds. Using the 2013 figures, it shows that Church of England secondary schools with an admissions policy selecting for 100% of pupils on a faith criteria admitted 34.6% fewer pupils who were entitled to free schools meals than would be expected if they admitted local children. On the theme of social cohesion, it goes on to claim that:
Schools are the state-funded institutions that should be doing most to prepare people for life in an increasingly diverse society … schools should not purposely separate children from one another by religion. Schools should not help entrench and create fault-lines for a Britain that already needs to work at social cohesion and does not need extra religious tensions added to existing ones.
A PDF copy of this report is available to download. Click here to access.
No Room at the Inn
Humanists UK (2017).
This report from Humanists UK publishes the findings of a study into the admissions policies of all 210 Church of England secondary schools listed on the government's register of schools in England. It notes a degree of variation in the levels of discrimination in admissions processes, finding that almost every state Catholic and Jewish school in England allocates all of their places on the basis of religious selection, but that generic Christian schools (adhering to a 'Christian ethos' but having no particular denomination) allocated just 11% of places according to a religious test in 2013. The study finds that 69% of Church of England state secondary schools have admissions policies that religiously discriminate, with this figure rising to 75% when current and former voluntary controlled schools (which have no control over their admission arrangements) are excluded. It also shows that 25% of Church of England state secondary schools use religious selection criteria in allocating all of their places, that 45% select a majority of their pupils with reference to religion and that one in four give priority to children from religious families other than the Church over children from non-religious families. The report further notes that the number of religiously selected places at Church of England secondary schools has increased in the last five years, contrary to the Church's repeated claim to run schools that are open and inclusive.
The report concludes by noting that: 'In both policy and practice, Church schools continue to discriminate along religious lines, and a great many do so to the exclusion of all other religions and beliefs'.
A PDF copy of this report is available to download. Click here to access.
Impact of religious selection on parental choice
Humanists UK (20 June 2017).
This analysis of Department for Education statistics on primary and secondary school applications and offers for September 2017 finds that: 'on average, the proportion of parents offered their first choice secondary school was significantly lower in areas with a high proportion of religiously selected places. More specifically, for every 1% increase in the proportion of secondary school places subject to religious selection, there is a 4.2% increase in parents missing out on their first choice school'.
Selective Comprehensives 2017: Admissions to high-attaining non-selective schools for disadvantaged pupils
C. Cullinane et al. (2017), The Sutton Trust.
This report looks at the social composition of the top 500 comprehensives in England. It finds that faith schools are over-represented in the category of top schools, as measured by overall GCSE performance, comprising 33.4% of the top 500 comprehensives and 19.7% of secondary schools as a whole. However, the report also finds that faith schools perform less well when using measures based on progress, and that, while the top performing faith schools took a similar (if slightly lower) proportion of children eligible for free school meals to the top performing non-faith schools (at 9.1% compared to 9.5%), the gap compared to their local neighbourhoods was substantially higher. The report notes that faith schools were 'more than three times as socially selective compared to their catchment area than non-faith schools, with an average 6% FSM gap, compared to 2%'. The gaps for the top performing Anglican and Catholic schools were found to be similar, at 5.7% and 6.7% respectively. The report claims that the reason for this is that, because faith schools are able to recruit a significant proportion of pupils on a religious basis, 'they typically draw substantially from outside their neighbourhood catchment areas, particularly in the case of Catholic schools'.
A PDF copy of this report is available to download. Click here to access.
Joint Civil Society Report to the United Nations
Universal Periodic Review of the United Kingdom (3rd Cycle), Human Rights Check UK, The British Institute of Human Rights (2017).
This report draws on a range of consultation events and a nationwide call for evidence, engaging over 175 Civil Society Organisations, to explore a range of human rights issues. On the issue of children's rights, the report expresses concern about the impact of religion in the UK's education system. It notes that the requirement for all children in state schools to take part in collective worship in England and Wales raises 'concerns about the inadequacy of withdrawal rights', given that 'children with sufficient understanding are not able to withdraw themselves'. On the issue of faith schools directly, the report highlights 'concerns about the ability of state-funded religious schools to lawfully discriminate against non-religious families by selecting pupils based on religion'.
A PDF copy of this report is available to download. Click here to access.
Research into Religiously Selective Admissions Criteria
Fair Admissions Campaign (2017).
This report provides a review of existing studies on the debate around faith schools and outlines research conducted by the Fair Admissions Campaign. This research found clear evidence of socio-economic and ethnic segregation. An analysis of comprehensive secondary schools found that schools without a religious character admitted 11% more pupils who were eligible for free school meals than the proportion of such pupils in their local area. In contrast, Church of England schools admitted 10% fewer, Roman Catholic schools admitted 24% fewer, Jewish secondaries 61% fewer and Muslim secondaries 25% fewer. On average, faith schools whose admissions criteria allowed for religious selection for all places admitted 27% fewer pupils from this category than would be expected if such schools were a true reflection of their local area.
In addition to this, research conducted in 2013 found that Church of England secondaries that did not select on the basis of religion took an average of 0.7% more pupils from Asian backgrounds than their local areas. In contrast, church schools that used selection for 100% of their places took an average of 1.5% fewer. Roman Catholic schools had an average of 4.4% fewer Asian pupils than would be expected given their local areas. Schools with no religious character had an average of around 1% more Asian pupils than would be expected.
A PDF copy of this report is available to download. Click here to access.
Ethnic diversity in religious Free Schools
Humanists UK (September 2016).
This report by Humanists UK examines issues of ethnic segregation in religious free schools. Using school ethnicity data from the January 2016 school census, it shows that Christian schools using 100% religious selection are less ethnically diverse and have a much greater proportion of children classed as being of 'white origin' than schools using the 50% cap for religious selection or using no religious selection at all. Data for secondary school admissions (provided by the Fair Admissions Campaign) show that:
63% of pupils at Church of England free schools are white, compared to 78% in 100% selective Church of England schools.
55% of pupils at other Christian schools are white, compared to 85% at 100% selective Christian schools.
15% of pupils at Church of England free schools are Asian, compared to 6% at 100% selective Church of England schools.
19% of pupils in other Christian free schools operating under the 50% cap are Asian, compared to just 3% of pupils at the 100% selective other Christian schools.
Poverty of opportunity?
T. Hannay (2 August 2016), SchoolDash.
This blog post for SchoolDash examines the issue of economic deprivation among children, and the way in which different types of schools either enable or hinder opportunities for students from poorer families. The analysis shows that, in certain faith schools (especially Roman Catholic and non-Christian faith schools) poorer pupils are under-represented, after taking account of the levels of poverty in their local areas.
Looking at schools in terms of their religious denomination shows that Church of England schools have 'little overall bias', but Roman Catholic schools 'admit fewer poor pupils than their locations would suggest'. At the secondary school level, the data show that faith schools take 'less than their fair share of poorer pupils while non-religious schools take correspondingly more'. There are also significant differences in the various types of religious school. Non-Christian faith schools have the largest bias, with a deprivation intake score relative to their local population of -46.9% (although the sample size is very small). Among large sample sizes, the most significant bias is found in Roman Catholic schools, with a score of -16.2%. Faith schools as a general category have a score of -9.7%. Church of England schools have a score of +1%. Non-faith schools have a score of +2.6%.
For primary schools, the results are similar. Non-Christian faith schools have an intake bias score of -55.2%, Roman Catholic schools have a score of -10.5%, faith schools in general have a score of -7.3% and Church of England schools have a score of -5.5%. In contrast, non-faith schools have a score of +7.8%.
