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Department for Education and Skills. The views expressed in this work are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the DfES. All errors and omissions remain the authors. Executive Summary Throughout the post-war period there have been many attempts to reform the UK education system. This article reviews empirical evidence looking at the impact of some key reforms which were designed to address a number of specific problems in the UK education system, namely poor and apparently falling standards in schools, the low staying on rate at age 16, the relatively poor basic skills of the UK population and persistent inequalities in Higher Education. A major concern in the 1980s was that the staying on rate in the UK, although rising, was low by international standards. Furthermore, exam achievement at age 16 had stagnated. This led to widespread concerns about falling standards in schools. In response the Conservative governments of the 1980s and 1990s introduced a number of market mechanisms into the UK education system, including parental choice, parent representation on governing bodies and linking school funding with student enrolment numbers. Alongside this publicly available tes