Ability and opportunity in a comprehensive school *

If we cannot, at present, draw any firm conclusions about the extent to which comprehensive schools are productive of talent, we can at least examine the extent to which they provide increased equality of opportunity for individuals with equal talent potential or ‘ability’. For the most common criticism of the tripartite system is that while purporting to effect selection on the basis of ability (operationally defined as IQ) it does not in fact do so accurately.