What's in a number? Commentary on Gorard and Fitz's ‘Investigating the determinants of segregation between schools’

Abstract

This paper seeks to critique the methodology utilized by Gorard and Fitz in their work on changing levels of social segregation between schools. Demonstrating the extent to which their ‘Index of Segregation’ is determined by overall levels of free school meal entitlement, this paper argues that their Index does not, as is claimed, reveal how patterns of school enrolment have changed over time. Their dismissal of the polarization hypothesis is thus contested on methodological grounds, but also with reference to both the wealth of previous, largely qualitative, studies cataloguing the detrimental consequences of marketization and our own conceptualization and empirical analysis of trends in free school meal entitlement. The paper concludes that, notwithstanding Gorard and Fitz's claims, the polarization debate is far from settled. The need to understand whether and how market processes advantage some individuals and groups at the expense of others remains of central policy significance.