LONDON -- Sixteen years ago, then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher created the Assisted Places Scheme (AP), Britain's version of opportunity scholarships. Since that time, 75,000 children from low-income families have received financial assistance from the central government in London to cover school fees for private independent schools. Now comes the first study to analyze the program's effectiveness. Verdict: the opportunity scholarship students performed significantly better on academic examinations than the control group of students at government schools.

The study, produced by the Centre for Educational Research at the London School of Economics (LSE), compared two specific groups of students: a sample group of AP students and a group of students who were accepted into the AP program but turned down the offer and instead enrolled in a government school. Based on statistical analysis of students' previous test scores, it was determined that both groups had entered secondary school with comparable academic ability.

At the end of the students' secondary school careers, however, an amazing thing had happened. Despite their nearly identical academic abilities, the AP students were performing significantly better than their government-school counterparts.

Before discussing this crucial finding, however, a note about the British testing system. The exams given students at the end of secondary school are called A-level exams. Universities in Britain admit students based on the results of these exams (in this sense they are used in a similar fashion to U.S. Scholastic Assessment Test scores). Students normally take three A-level exams and may choose from a variety of subjects (general studies, history, math, physics, etc.). Exam-takers then receive letter grade scores with associated numerical values (for example, an "A" is worth ten points, a "B" is worth eight points, a "C" is worth six points, and so forth). A top score of three "A" grades would therefore equal thirty points.

According to the LSE study, "The analyses suggest that the overall benefit for pupils on an AP is in the order of 6 points when general studies A level is included. This translates into three grades -- the equivalent of obtaining, for example, three grade As in the private sector versus three grade Bs in the state sector." The percentage difference between the numerical total for three "A" grades and three "B" grades is an impressive 20 percent.

The study's authors were careful to issue several cautions (e.g., the sample size used was relatively small, etc.). However, although they rightly call for further research, the authors conclude that "these findings are clearly suggestive of pupils on the [AP] scheme achieving higher performance scores than equivalent pupils in the state sector."

Despite the confirmation of the program's success, the new Labour government scrapped the AP program earlier this year. For a government that prides itself on realism, abolishing the AP program seemed like a knee-jerk reaction reminiscent of Labour's socialist past. Labour's mistake, however, shouldn't stop American education reformers from using the LSE study to effect radical Thatcherite change in U.S. education.

-- By Lance T. Izumi