Eleven-plus


The eleven-plus is a standardised examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools that use academic selection. The name derives from the age group for secondary entry: 11–12 years.
The eleven-plus was once used throughout the UK, but is now only used in counties and boroughs in England that offer selective schools instead of comprehensive schools. Also known as the transfer test, it is especially associated with the Tripartite System which was in use from 1944 until it was phased out across most of the UK by 1976.
The examination tests a student's ability to solve problems using a test of verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, and most tests now also offer papers in mathematics and English. The intention was that the eleven-plus should be a general test for intelligence similar to an IQ test, but by also testing for taught curriculum skills it is evaluating academic ability developed over previous years, which implicitly indicates how supportive home and school environments have been.
Introduced in 1944, the examination was used to determine which type of school the student should attend after primary education: a grammar school, a secondary modern school, or a technical school. The base of the Tripartite System was the idea that skills were more important than financial resources in determining what kind of schooling a child should receive: different skills required different schooling.
In some local education authorities the Thorne plan or scheme or system developed by Alec Clegg, named in reference to Thorne Grammar School, which took account of primary school assessment as well as the once-off 11+ examination, was later introduced.

Within the Tripartite System

The Tripartite System of education, with an academic, a technical and a functional strand, was established in the 1940s. Prevailing educational thought at the time was that testing was an effective way to discover the strand to which a child was most suited. The results of the exam would be used to match children's secondary schools to their abilities and future career needs.
When the system was implemented, technical schools were not available on the scale envisaged. Instead, the Tripartite System came to be characterised by fierce competition for places at the prestigious grammar schools. As such, the eleven-plus took on a particular significance. Rather than allocating according to need or ability, it became seen as a question of passing or failing. This led to the exam becoming widely resented by some although strongly supported by others.

Structure

The structure of the eleven-plus varied over time, and among the different counties which used it. Usually, it consisted of three papers:
Some exams have:
Most children took the eleven-plus in their final year of primary school: usually at age 10 or 11. In Berkshire and Buckinghamshire it was also possible to sit the test a year early – a process named the ten-plus; later, the Buckinghamshire test was called the twelve-plus and taken a year later than usual.
Originally, the test was voluntary;, some 30% of students in Northern Ireland do not sit for it.
In Northern Ireland, pupils sitting the exam were awarded grades in the following ratios: A, B1, B2, C1, C2, D. There was no official distinction between pass grades and fail grades.

Current practice

There are 163 remaining grammar schools in various parts of England, and 67 in Northern Ireland. In counties in which vestiges of the Tripartite System still survive, the eleven-plus continues to exist. Today it is generally used as an entrance test to a specific group of schools, rather than a blanket exam for all pupils, and is taken voluntarily. For more information on these, see the main article on grammar schools.
Eleven-plus and similar exams vary around the country but will use some or all of the following components:
Eleven-plus tests take place in September of children's final primary school year with results provided to parents in October to allow application for secondary schools. In Lincolnshire children will sit the Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. In Buckinghamshire children sit tests in Verbal Reasoning, Mathematics and Non-Verbal reasoning. In Kent, where the eleven-plus test is more commonly known as the Kent Test, children sit all four of the above disciplines; however the Creative Writing, which falls as part the English test, will only be used in circumstances of appeal. In the London Borough of Bexley from September 2008, following a public consultation, pupils sitting the Eleven-Plus exam are only required to do a Mathematics and Verbal Reasoning paper. In Essex, where the examination is optional, children sit Verbal Reasoning, Mathematics and English. Other areas use different combinations. Some authorities/areas operate an opt-in system, while others operate an opt-out system where all pupils are entered unless parents decide to opt out. In the North Yorkshire, Harrogate/York area, children are only required to sit two tests: Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning.
Independent schools in England generally select children at the age of 13, using a common set of papers known as the Common Entrance Examination. About ten do select at eleven; using papers in English, Mathematics and Science. These also have the Common entrance exam name.

Scoring

Authority/consortiumMeanStandard Deviation
Bishop Wordsworth10015
Chelmsford10015
Dover Grammar School for Boys10015
Folkestone10015
Gloucester10015
Harvey10015
Heckmondwike10015
Henrietta Barnett School10015
Kendrick School10015
Mayfield10015
Reading School10015
Redbridge10015
The Latymer School10015
Torbay and Devon Consortium10015
West Midland Boys10015
West Midland Girls10015
Buckinghamshire10043
Dame Alice Owen10615
Slough Consortium10615
South West Herts10615
Bexley20030
King Edwards Consortium20030
Warwickshire20030
Wirral Borough Council23415
Altrincham31530
Sale31830
Stretford32730
Urmston32830

England has 163 grammar schools 155 of which control their own admissions including the choice of test.. A standard score shows how well the individual has performed relative to the mean score for the population although the term population is open to interpretation. GL Assessment, who set the majority of 11+ tests, say it should be, "a very large, representative sample of students usually across the UK"; however, grammar schools may standardise their tests against just those children who apply to them in a given year, as this enables them to match supply to demand.
Test results follow a normal distribution resulting in the familiar bell curve which reliably predicts how many test takers gain each different score. For example, only 15.866% score more than one standard deviation above the mean.
By standardising on just the cohort of applicants, a school with, for example, 100 places which regularly gets 800 applications can set a minimum pass mark of 115 which selects approximately 127 applicants filling all of the places and leaving about 27 on the waiting list. The downside of this local standardisation, as it has been called, is parents are frequently unaware that their children are being judged as much by the standard of other applicants as their own abilities.
Another issue with the lack of national standards in testing is it prevents any comparison between schools. Public perception may be that only pupils who are of grammar school standard are admitted to grammar schools; however, other information such as the DfE league tables calls into question the existence of any such standard. Competition for places at Sutton Grammar School is extremely fierce with, according to an online forum over 2,500 applicants in 2016. At the other end of the scale, Buckinghamshire council website says, "If your child's STTS is 121 or above, they qualify for grammar school. We expect that about 37% of children will get an STTS of 121 or more." Official statistics show 100% of those admitted to Sutton Grammar School have, "high prior attainment at the end of key stage 2", compared to only 44% of those who attend Skegness Grammar School. The Grammar Schools Heads Association's Spring 2017 newsletter says the government are considering a national selection test which would remove the lack of consistency between different 11+ tests.
Between them, GL and CEM earn an estimated £2.5m annually from setting and marking the 11+ tests. Releasing the raw marks would bring some clarity to the admissions process but attempts to do so have generally been unsuccessful. GL have used the fact that they are not covered by Freedom of Information legislation to withhold information made for information relating to the 11+ exams used by Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, who stated, "Our examination provider, GL Assessment Limited is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as it is not a public body.“, whilst their main rival CEM successfully argued in court that, "one of the benefits of its 11+ testing is that it is 'tutor proof'” and releasing the raw marks would undermine this unique selling point.
When a standard score is calculated the results is a negative value for any values below the mean. As it would seem very strange to be given a negative score Goldstein and Fogelman explain, "It is common to 'normalise' the scores by transforming them to give a distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15." Thus a normalised SAS of 100 indicates the mean achievement whilst a score of 130 would be two standard deviations above the mean. A score achieved by only 2.2% of the population. Most, but not all, authorities normalise follow this convention. The following table showing the normalisation values used by some for 2017 entry.