Leon Feinstein

Educational Outcomes: Adversity and Resilience

In the context of risk and resilience, the paper attempts to integrate three strands of research: genetic and mental-health factors, the findings of cohort studies and those of other investigations of educational outcomes. A very wide range of factors, many of them related to disadvantage, bear on such outcomes, but none deterministically. Intelligence, conduct and emotional disorders are all found to influence academic achievement to varying degrees, as do a number of aspects of family, school and the wider social environment. Aspects that contribute to resilience are identified, and the paper concludes with a discussion of interventions to enhance resilience.

Educational Inequality and Juvenile Crime: An Area-Based Analysis

This study considers the influence of one form of relative deprivation on crime, namely educational inequality. This is examined through an area-based analysis of the relationship between juvenile conviction rates for a range of offences and educational inequality based on maths Key Stage 3 scores in English local education authorities (LEAs). Using aggregate area-level information from three cohorts of young people (born between 1983 and 1985) within each area, and controlling for other variables which might be supposed to have an effect on juvenile crime rates, we found that there is evidence of a relationship between educational inequality and juvenile conviction rates for violent crime within local areas (significant at the 10% level). There is a further relationship between educational inequality and racially motivated crime (significant at the 5% level). There was no significant relationship between our cohort-based measures of educational inequality and property-related crime. We believe that this report represents an important addition to the evidence base, providing robust evidence of an association between educational inequality and some forms of juvenile crime, notably violent and racially motivated crime.

Determinants and Pathways of Progression to Level 2 Qualifications: Evidence from the NCDS and BHPS

The commitment of the government to improving the education of the workforce has been emphasized both in the Five Year Strategy for Children and Learners of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES, 2004) - now Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) - and in the recently published Leitch Review, which calls for the UK to be a “world leader in skills”. Leitch also called for over 90 per cent of adults qualified to at least Level 2, an increase from 69 per cent in 2005, with a commitment to go further and achieve 95 per cent as soon as possible. However, our understanding of the characteristics and motivations of individuals who participate in level 2 courses is limited. While their demographic features are well known, few studies have used longitudinal data to look at the life histories of participants and thus our understanding of what may influence or predict their participation in learning is limited. This report aims to address this issue, describing the characteristics of people who return to learning to take level 2 qualifications and their pathways to progression. The research draws on two nationally representative longitudinal studies, the National Child Development Survey (NCDS) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS).