The summer-born at Oxbridge
John Freeman
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The BBC reports that there is clear evidence that summer-born children are less likely to be admitted to Oxbridge. This isn't new, and the effect has been widely studied – see, for example, Freakonomics on sport. I have blogged and written about this before, always declaring my interest as an August-born child. But here, there seems to be very clear evidence – numerical, statistical, hard evidence – that 30% more October-born children are admitted than July-born children.
What struck me, though, was that in the face of this evidence, evidence that they themselves had supplied to the BBC, the universities "insisted that there was no evidence for the claim".
Ignoring the stupidity of this position, it does not say much for the universities' commitment to truth and rigour. The only reason I can see for denying the evidence is that they can then do nothing to remedy the position.
And now the Institute of Education has finally worked out that there is a correlation between ability setting and month of birth... again this is not just unsurprising but almost boring. The question that remains is the nature of the policy response. What will the DfE do about this? (My guess is, nothing, they will say that it is for schools...) And what about schools? (My guess is, nothing, as it's all too difficult) There is an obvious system incentive – school SATS and GCSE scores could be reported by summer / winter months of birth – with a "floor" target for too wide a gap.
John Freeeman CBE is a former director of children's services and is now a freelance consultant