Education Maintenance Allowance: The First Two Years. A Quantitative Evaluation

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has commissioned a longitudinal evaluation of the piloting of Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs). The evaluation is being undertaken by a consortium of research organisations, led by the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) and also includes the National Centre for Social Research, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Institute for Employment Research (IER). This is the second report of the statistical evaluation of EMA.

The statistical evaluation design is a longitudinal cohort study involving large random sample surveys of young people (and their parents) in 10 EMA pilot areas and eleven control areas1. Two cohorts of young people were selected from Child Benefit records. The first cohort of young people left compulsory schooling in the summer of 1999 and they, and their parents, were interviewed between November 1999 and April 2000. A second interview was carried out with these young people between November 2000 and April 2001. The second cohort left compulsory education the following summer of 2000 and young people, and their parents, were first interviewed between November 2000 and April 2001.