Character Education and Academic Progression in English Schools

This paper offers the first large-scale evaluation of whether school-level educational approaches that cultivate normative individual differences (i.e., virtues) are associate with academic progression. Using the most comprehensive longitudinal dataset available from the Department for Education, Study 1 analysed over 3,000 English secondary schools and three million pupils annually (2016–2024). Progress 8, the government’s value-added measure of GCSE attainment, provides a stringent test by controlling for prior ability and sociocultural background. Schools accredited with the Association for Character Education’s Quality Mark (QM) or Quality Mark Plus (QM+) consistently achieved higher Progress 8 scores, with QM+ schools in several years gaining more than half a GCSE grade per pupil averaged across subjects. Study 2 complements these findings through a national survey of QM and QM+ schools, illuminating perceived mechanisms linking character education to learning and wellbeing. The findings demonstrate robust, policy-relevant evidence that character education may meaningfully enhance academic development.