The study, undertaken by Professor Stephen Machin and Joan Wilson of the LSE's Centre for Economic Performance, shows that while academies have boosted GCSE performance compared with the schools they replaced, other poorly performing schools in the same areas had recorded similar increases.
Machin, the centre's research director, and Wilson said the improvements by city academies looked "less impressive" when benchmarked against other poor performers, calling the changes in GSCE results "statistically indistinguishable" from those of the other schools.
But the report added that the academy scheme was still "evolving rapidly" and it was "likely that children may need more exposure to it for there to be substantial beneficial effects on achievement".
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