UCL Centre for Education Policy & Equalising Opportunities

This recent work by @drsamsims.bsky.social and @clareroutledge.bsky.social was quoted in today's Times article discussing teacher training recruitment this year👏

www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

The ONS research excellence awards took place yesterday.

@jakeanders.uk co-authored work on the impact of free schools which won the People's Choice Award and Claire Crawford worked with @theifs.bsky.social on the Sure Start evaluation which won the Impact of Analysis Award.

Congratulations!

This post is based on work available as a CEPEO working paper by John, CEPEO’s @jakeanders.uk and coauthors, so if you’d like more details it’s all in here: econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucl:ce...

A cautionary tale on interpreting the data you get from surveys across time from John Jerrim now up on the CEPEO blog: blogs.ucl.ac.uk/cepeo/2025/1...

Teacher Professional Development: Costs, Benefits and Policy Explore teacher evaluation methods, incentives, and their impact on student outcomes. Learn how performance measures drive teacher behavior and skills.

CEPEO colleague @drsamsims.bsky.social has co-authored a new book chapter on effective teacher training.

Access it for free here: livehandbook.org/k-12-educati...

@laouthwaite.bsky.social is about to start a new ESRC-funded project exploring potential screening tools for early identification of special educational needs - and what they suggest about numbers who may require support in future.

Check out her blog introducing the project: tinyurl.com/yecuddv2

"Teaching is incredibly meaningful, but meaning alone won’t fix shortages. Evidence like this can help government design policies that genuinely attract the graduates our schools need." The @cepeo-ucl.bsky.social team present essential insights on why people choose, or rule out, a career in teaching

Our friends at Uni of Sheffield economics department are organising a workshop showcasing research using admin data designed to inform education policy

🕕10am-4pm on Thurs 11th Dec, in person in Sheffield

Programme here: tinyurl.com/bdfawbxf

Sign up to attend for free here: tinyurl.com/yakxb9y6

They use survey experiments to understand the reasons people choose (not) to enter teaching.

Their results show (contrary to existing research, which is largely based on self-reports) that extrinsic rewards (pay!) have the most influence on job choices, even among those considering teaching.

Why do people choose to become teachers?

Rigorous new evidence on this vital question for our education system in a new CEPEO working paper out today by @drsamsims.bsky.social & @clareroutledge.bsky.social

econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucl:ce...

Early years foundation stage profile results, Academic year 2024/25 Annual statistics on early years foundation stage profile assessments in England relating to the 7 areas of learning and the 17 early learning goals.

Less good is that this increase has been driven by non-FSM eligible children, with the FSM eligible rate falling slightly from 51.5% to 51.3%, and the non-FSM/FSM gap widening by 0.8%pts.

All these figures are in the EYFSP results here: explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statist...

What action could the government take to supercharge progress the rest of the way?

Funny you should ask: @laouthwaite.bsky.social and Claire Crawford have written a blog post on what they should do: blogs.ucl.ac.uk/cepeo/2025/1...

The government's opportunity mission set the goal of reaching 75% of children having a good level of development when starting school by 2028.

It's good to see this has now reached 68.3%, up 0.6%pts from last year, but still a way to go.

UCL CEPEO Autumn Seminar Series 2025 The effect of university grade inflation on graduate outcomes Dr Judith Delaney (University of Bath) Thursday 27th November 2025, 3pm (UK Time) #CEPEOSeminarSeries

There's still time to register for this week's CEPEO seminar!

We are hosting Dr Judith Delaney from University of Bath who will presenting work on the effect of university grade inflation on graduate outcomes

REGISTER NOW: ucl.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

NEW BLOG POST

@lindseymacmillan.bsky.social, @clairetyler.bsky.social & Padmini Ayer share key findings and practical recommendations to support employers on their social mobility journey from their research on where inequalities arise in UK graduate recruitment.

blogs.ucl.ac.uk/cepeo/2025/1...

UCL CEPEO Autumn Seminar Series 2025 The effect of university grade inflation on graduate outcomes Dr Judith Delaney (University of Bath) Thursday 27th November 2025, 3pm (UK Time) #CEPEOSeminarSeries

There's still time to register for this week's CEPEO seminar!

We are hosting Dr Judith Delaney from University of Bath who will presenting work on the effect of university grade inflation on graduate outcomes

REGISTER NOW: ucl.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

@fabienpetit.bsky.social presenting his work this morning at the UCL and IFS joint workshop on Human Capital and Labour Markets coorganised by CEPEO

CEPEO is launching a new Master's programme with @sriucl.bsky.social — this will support students to understand and conduct rigorous research addressing challenges in education policy & educational inequalities.

Applications now open for Oct 2026 start.

Find out more: www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-...

Our director @lindseymacmillan.bsky.social is on the first panel at @suttontrust.bsky.social's HE summit to launch their new report "Degrees of difference" on social mobility and HE

Read the full report here: publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5901/ld...

"We recommend further that the Government should implement a dataset that covers the analysis of the relationship between parental income and educational outcomes for a wider section of the population rather than just those claiming certain benefits." Paragraph 213, p.51.

"We recommend that the Government publishes a timetable detailing the progress of the linkage of LEO data and the Pupil Parent Matched Dataset and when ... it will begin to be available for research and policy purposes by the end of the current Parliament." Paragraph 212, p. 51.

"The Government should increase the household income threshold at which a student can get the maximum maintenance loan during their time at university, to match inflationary rises." Paragraph 182, p. 42.

Obviously other stuff going on in the news rn so you may have missed the release of the @houseoflords.parliament.uk Social Mobility Policy Committee 2024-2026 report.

Some important recs incl some from CEPEO regarding uni loans and a lack of data:
committees.parliament.uk/writtenevide...

Great to see our researchers @lindseymacmillan.bsky.social and @gillwyness.bsky.social presenting their work on inequalities at @appam.bsky.social this week

CEPEO are partners in the @learnineq.bsky.social project
which combines data from 9 European nations (including England) to better understand our shared and unique roots of economic inequalities.
We'll be sharing initial findings very soon... 👀 Watch this space.
cordis.europa.eu/project/id/1...

Have you checked out our @cepeo-ucl.bsky.social working paper series recently?

We've had a productive year, with our researchers investigating topics such as

teacher assessed v exam grades

the impact of t-levels

the labour market talent pool

econpapers.repec.org/paper/uclcep...

Job! A vacancy at the @eui-eu.bsky.social for a postdoc joining the @learnineq.bsky.social project, for 13 months, starting mid January. We study inequalities in school careers, and we engage with policy makers. The vacancy is here, please forward. DEADLINE 24 NOVEMBER. www.eui.eu/Documents/Se...

There is still a lot of work to be done on these qualifications if they are to meet the aims set out for them.

Finally, the attention paid to recommendations for addressing some of the weaknesses in the implementation and understanding of T Levels by all stakeholders is highly welcome, given the challenges they currently face (econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucl:ce...).