This paper estimates the impact of the Specialist Schools initiative and the Excellence in Cities
programme on the attainment of secondary school pupils in England. The focus is on their relative
impact across gender and ethnic groups. Using pupil-level data, we find that both policies have had
positive effects on test score gain but that these effects vary substantially between boys and girls and
across ethnic groups. Both policies have been more effective for boys than for girls. The Excellence in
Cities programme is estimated have had a positive impact on the test score gain of ethnic minority
pupils but not for whites, who have benefited only from the Specialist Schools initiative. The greatest
impact is estimated to have occurred for schools which have had specialist and EiC status
simultaneously.