The CEPEO Podcast CEPEO

In this webinar, Dr Richard Murphy from the University of Texas will discuss his paper which considers an unavoidable feature of the school environment, class rank. 

He will also discuss the necessary assumptions for the identification of rank effects and propose new solutions to identification challenges.

Using administrative data on all public-school students in Texas, Richard's paper show that students with a higher third-grade academic rank, conditional on achievement and classroom fixed effects, have higher subsequent test scores, are more likely to take AP classes, graduate from high school, enroll in and graduate from college, and ultimately have higher earnings 19 years later. 

CEPEO seminar series

The Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO) hosts a research seminar series where guest speakers present cutting edge research. 

Join policymakers, researchers and practitioners to explore the pressing questions of our time in education policy and equalising opportunities.

Alice Bradbury is Associate Professor of Sociology of Education at the UCL Institute of Education (IOE), and Co-Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy (0-11 years) (HHCP). Her research interests are in the relationship between education policy and inequalities in terms of class, gender, and 'race'. Her research examines the impact of policy in primary and early years education with a focus on issues of social justice.

Recent research projects have focused on the role of the priorities of primary schools during Covid (funded by ESRC) and the retention of BME teachers in schools in areas of disadvantage (funded by the British Academy). Alice's latest book, Ability, Inequality and Post-Pandemic Schools: Rethinking Contemporary Myths of Meritocracy will be published in June 2021.

Dominic Wyse is Professor of Early Childhood and Primary Education at University College London (UCL), Institute of Education (IOE). He is President of the British Educational Research Association (BERA), and Founding Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy (0-11 years) (HHCP). Dominic is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS), and a fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (RSA).

The main focus of Dominic’s research is curriculum and pedagogy. His research has contributed to the understanding the pedagogy of writing, reading, literacy, and creativity across the life-course (e.g. How Writing Works: From the Invention of the Alphabet to the Rise of Social Media - Cambridge University Press; and The Good Writing Guide 4th Edition SAGE).

Title: What do mature learners look for? Results from a conjoint experiment.

Abstract: Universities are increasingly concerned with how to attract and support mature learners into higher education courses. Qualitative research suggests that mature learners – whose priorities, constraints, work experience, and other commitments are likely to diverge from their 18-year-old peers – respond to different aspects of a higher education offer. However, this research generally features small samples of participants, is conducted with current mature learners (usually in institutions that specialise in mature learners), and relies on their self-report of what attracted them to a course. Working with the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education, we conducted a conjoint survey experiment with 2500 adults who were not currently studying, and whose highest qualification was Level 3 or below. We presented them a series of random permutations of HE courses, to assess which features tended to make a course more attractive or preferable. The results of this experiment can inform both an understanding of what matters to mature learners and the design of schemes to support their access to higher education.

Bio(s): Susannah Hume is Director of Evaluation in the Policy Institute at King’s College London. Her research focuses on the effectiveness of social programmes, particularly those relating to social justice, access to education, and civic participation.
Dr Eliza Kozman is Deputy Director (Research) at the Centre of Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education. Eliza has a strong interest in social mobility and a background in higher education policy.

In this podcast, Hannah Nash presents the preliminary findings from the UKRI funded ICKLE project which is investigating the impact of COVID-19 schools closures on the progress of children who were in reception in 2020 and are now in year 1.

Using a longitudinal design, the project is investigating the impact of COVID-19 schools closures on the progress of children who were in reception in 2020 and are now in year 1. The project uses data recorded by schools at three points – before the pandemic, in early Autumn 2020, and in Spring 2021 and survey data on home learning. These data will be used to investigate the factors that have moderated and mediated pupil progress against a subset of the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile goals and reading levels.

Speaker: Dr Hannah Nash is a lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on typical and atypical language and reading development and she is the principal investigator for the ICKLE project. Hannah completed her BSc, MsC & PhD at the University of York (2007) and has since worked as a research fellow at Lancaster University, the University of York and most recently UCL, before joining the School of Psychology as a Lecturer in October 2013. Her work contributes to the ‘Successful childhood development’ Grand Challenge within the School of Psychology. Within the School, Hannah heads the Language and Memory Lab and she represents Psychology at Language@Leeds and the Leeds Centre for Interdisciplinary Childhood and Youth Research.



CEPEO seminar series
The Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO) hosts a research seminar series where guest speakers present cutting edge research.

Join policymakers, researchers and practitioners to explore the pressing questions of our time in education policy and equalising opportunities.

In this podcast, Dr Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela discusses the value-added of colleges providing vocational education to young and adult learners in England, and the returns to different fields of study taught at these colleges.

Using unique panel data that includes multiple measures of students' ability and background characteristics, Jenifer will account for usual threats to identification. Jenifer found moderate heterogeneity in college value-added for outcomes such as daily earnings and employment probabilities Dispersion in value-added for academic outcomes was more pronounced. Earnings returns vary substantially across fields of study. Earnings returns were higher for young than for adult learners and tend to be larger for females.



Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela is a Research Economist at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics (LSE). Jenifer is also the research coordinator of the Centre for Vocational Education Research, also at LSE. Her research spans different areas on the economics of education and labour economics. She holds a PHD in Economics from the European University Institute.

This seminar explores research funded by the Nuffield Foundation, looking at the characteristics and post-16 trajectories of young people who miss out on the key benchmarks of GCSE maths and English at grades 9-4 (formerly A*-C).

This group is too often overlooked in the policy focus on raising GCSE attainment and improving access to higher education.

In this seminar, Ruth Lupton and her team illuminate the heterogeneity of this large group in terms of their prior achievements. They show how groups with different achievements fare in navigating the complex landscape of post-16 provision in England.

One of their objectives is to increase the visibility of characteristics and experiences of young people who are too often defined by what they have not achieved and to show how their opportunities for post-16 progression could be improved.

The team also argues that tackling inequalities in the post-16 phase cannot be done without improvements in data and research capacity and discusses ideas on how this might be done.



About the Speakers

Ruth Lupton
Honorary Professor of Education at the University of Manchester

Ruth’s research focuses on UK poverty and inequality, particularly in relation to education and spatial inequalities. Before joining the University of Manchester in 2013, she was Deputy Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE.

Ruth also worked at the IOE for four years in the 2000s.

Her recent work includes a review of the Conservatives’ record on compulsory education since 2015 with Polina Obolenskaya, a forthcoming book on 'Great Mistakes in Education Policy: and how to avoid them in the future' (with Debra Hayes, Policy Press April 2021), and leadership of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation funded Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit at the University of Manchester.

Ruth is interested in local approaches to poverty and inequality and is currently a member of the Greater Manchester Independent Inequalities Commission chaired by Professor Kate Pickett.

Sanne Velthuis
Research Associate at the University of Manchester

Sanne’s research interests include young people in further education and the labour market, as well as issues surrounding low pay and progression, and spatial inequalities in employment, skills and opportunities.

She completed her PhD at Coventry University before moving to the University of Manchester, where she has researched young people’s education and training transitions, as well as processes of neighbourhood change.

In her current role, she has researched the employment trajectories of low-paid workers in the UK.

Lorna Unwin
Professor Emerita (Vocational Education) and Honorary Professorial Fellow at LLAKES research centre at the UCL Institute of Education, London.

Lorna is also Honorary Professorial Research Fellow at the School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, and Honorary Fellow of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.

She has conducted many studies of post-school education and vocational and workplace training and recently conducted a comparative study of aerospace engineering apprentices in England and Germany with colleagues at the University of Cologne.

She has also been working with Ruth Lupton on studies of the education and training infrastructure in Greater Manchester.

Her recent books include ‘Contemporary Apprenticeship: International Perspectives on an Evolving Model of Learning’, published by Routledge (co-edited with Alison Fuller) and the 'Wiley International Handbook on Vocational Education and Training' (co-edited with David Guile).