Excellence in Cities: Evaluation of an Education Policy in Disadvantaged Areas

This paper reports on an economic evaluation of an important UK government education policy, the Excellence in Cities (EiC) programme aimed at alleviating poor student achievement in inner city areas. The analysis compares educational attainment in Maths and English for Year 9 (age 14) students before and after EiC introduction in EiC schools as compared to non-EiC schools. Schoollevel absences in treatment and control schools are also compared. The results show that a positive, but very small, improvement in pupil attainment took place in EiC schools versus comparison schools. There is some variation around this, such that the EiC impact is higher for pupils at the lower end of the attainment distribution. The programme has also seemed to benefit boys more than girls and has had a larger impact in schools where expenditure per pupil is higher. With regard to absences, the programme has significantly reduced authorised absences but has had no discernible effect on unauthorised absences. We interpret the findings as showing EiC to have had more of an impact at the bottom end of the education distribution. JEL Classification: I21; H52; C52