ABSTRACT
The youngest pupils in comprehensive schools ranged in age from 11 to 14, and the oldest from 16 to 18. In most Local Education Authorities (LEAs), therefore, comprehensive schools operated in a system that also included selective schools. The former status of the comprehensive schools was also associated with the organisational forms they had after becoming comprehen-sives. Thus, the selective schools in these mixed system LEAs tended to cream off the more talented students from the comprehensives. The socioeconomic characteristics of the LEA were essentially unrelated to the degree of reorganisation. Early moves towards comprehensivisation seemed to depend heavily on local conditions facing LEA leaders. However, there was clear evidence of differences in achievements for students of different ability levels. The other is the impressive degree to which the selective schools in these LEAs served to cream off a large proportion of the high-ability students from the compre-hensives.
