Dr Rebecca Allen

  • Qualifications and position:
    • BA (Hons), MRes, PGCE, PhD
    • Senior Lecturer in Economics of Education
  • Faculty:
  • Department:
  • Summary:
    • Rebecca is interested in secondary schools as institutions and the effect of government policies on their behaviour and performance. Areas of research interest include school admissions policies and parental choice of school; school accountability and governance; the role of faith schools in state education; competition between schools. She specialises in quantitative evaluation methods, with a particular interest in the measurement of segregation and estimating school effectiveness. Her work tends to use large scale datasets, such as the National Pupil Database and the Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England.
  • Teaching:
    • Course leader of the MA and MSc in Economics of Education
      Module leader: Economic Perspectives on Education Policy
      Module tutor: Economic Value of Education
      Short courses including Introduction to the National Pupil Database
  • Research Projects:
    • • The impact of changes in the School Admissions Code on the social composition of secondary schools (DfE funded; completion: July 2010).
      • Several projects in areas such as school expenditure, parental choice of school and teacher labour markets funded by the Department for Education's Centre for Understanding Behaviour Change (CUBeC).
  • Postgraduate Research:
    • PhD and Master's dissertation supervision of students within the field of Economics of Education.
      Examples of recent topics include: evaluating the impact of government interventions on school efficiency; designing school vouchers schemes; teacher labour markets in India, Africa and UK; effect of attending a particular type of school on academic performance; the effect of school leadership, inspectors and advisors on school quality in Africa and in the UK.
  • Professional Activities:
    • Rebecca is a Research Associate at the Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol.
  • Conferences/presentations:
    • • The impact of school admission reforms in Brighton and Hove. BERA conference, Sept 2010.
      • Does school competition raise standards? The case of faith schools in England. AERA conference (San Diego) and RES conference (Surrey) April 2009.
      • Witness to the House of Commons Select Committee on Schools, Children and Families. Diversity of schools: faith schools. London March 2008.
Dr Rebecca Allen

Contact details

Contact details

Publications

  • Allen, R.; Coldron, J. and West, A. (2011) 'The effect of changes in published secondary school admissions on social composition', Journal of Education Policy. forthcoming.
  • Grubb, W.N. and Allen, R. (2011) 'Rethinking school funding, resources, incentives, and outcomes', Journal of Educational Change. Vol. 12, 1, pp. 121-130.
  • Allen, R. and Burgess, S. (2011) 'Can school league tables help parents choose schools?', Fiscal Studies. Vol. 32, 2 , pp. 245-261.
  • Allen, R. and West, A. (2011) 'Why do faith secondary schools have advantaged intakes? The relative importance of neighbourhood characteristics, social background and religious identification amongst parents', British Educational Research Journal. Vo. 37, 4, pp. 691-712.
  • Singleton, A.D.; Longley, P.A.; Allen, R. and O'Brien, O. (2011) 'Estimating secondary school catchment areas and the spatial equity of access', Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. Vol. 35, 3, pp. 241-249.
  • Allen, R. and West, A. (2009) 'Religious schools in London: school admissions, religious composition and selectivity', Oxford Review of Education. Vol. 35, 4, pp. 471-494.
  • Allen, R. and Vignoles, A. (2007) 'What should an index of school segregation measure?', Oxford Review of Education. Vol. 33, 5, pp. 643-668.
  • Allen, R. (2007) 'Allocating pupils to their nearest school: the consequences for ability and social stratification', Urban Studies. Vol. 44, 4, pp. 751-770.