The probity of free school meals as a proxy measure for disadvantage
Bristol University, Bristol, (2008)Abstract
The use of free school meal (FSM) data is widely prevalent in official estimates of educational disadvantage as well as in educational research reports in Britain. However, while there has been some concern expressed about the measure, there has, to our knowledge, been no systematic test of its appropriateness. In this paper we test for its appropriateness as a measure, taking into account the dynamics of poverty and the error that can be associated with its application in judging school performance. We find that it is a coarse and unreliable indicator by which school performance is judged and leads to biased estimates of the effect of poverty on pupils academic progress. These findings raise important policy questions about the quality of indicators used in judging school performance.