Pupils in schools run by the best academy chains do significantly better than children at other state schools, research has shown. GCSE results were above average in schools run by nine academy sponsors, for poor children and other pupils, academics found.
The study, which looked at the performance of 31 academy chains, found a wide disparity, with children at several doing markedly worse. Some of these schools were offering a worse education to their poorest pupils, they said.
The research, commissioned by the Sutton Trust charity, was the largest attempt to date to quantify the performance of so-called chains that run three or more academies. There are 192 chains overall and they vary greatly, with AET, the largest, running 74 schools.
In general academy chains