EDUCATION AND SOCIAL-CLASS - REVISITING THE 1944 EDUCATION ACT WITH FIXED MARGINALS

Trends in class inequality in attendance at selective schools are hard to interpret, since the number of places at these schools and the distribution of children by class also change over time. Reanalysing data from the Nuffield Mobility Study, it is shown that interpretation of the trends depends on which measure of association is used. By viewing stratification as a continuous hierarchy which is then sliced up into 'classes' of differing sizes, some interpretative problems can be overcome; greatest clarity is achieved by defining a top class equal in size to the number of selective school places. Reanalysing the data using this 'fixed marginals' approach, a clear pattern emerges: growing inequality before 1944, movement towards equality in the first decade after, but sharply increased inequality thereafter. An explanation is proposed to explain this pattern.