Paul Croll

Truancy in secondary school pupils: prevalence, trajectories and pupil perspectives

School absenteeism and particularly unauthorized absenteeism or truancy has been the focus of a number of, so far largely unsuccessful, recent policy initiatives. The paper draws upon two sources of data, the British Household Panel Survey and detailed interviews with a group of persistent truants, to consider the extent, consequences and explanations for truancy from secondary schools. Truancy increases steadily across the years of secondary school and, especially in the later years of compulsory schooling there is evidence that patterns of truancy established in one year carry on into the next. Truancy is strongly associated with negative outcomes in terms of not staying in education post‐16, GCSE results and becoming unemployed. Coming from families of low socio‐economic status, parents not monitoring homework, negative attitudes towards teachers and the value of education are all associated with higher levels of truancy. However, the majority of young people in these situations do not truant and there are many truants who do not have these characteristics. A major explanation given by young people themselves for their non‐attendance is poor relationships with teachers, including teachers failing to match their expectations. Other factors mentioned by young people include bullying but also a more general dislike of the atmosphere of the school, sometimes associated with a change of school. There was little evidence of negative responses to the curriculum leading to truancy. It is suggested that we can distinguish between socio‐economic and attitudinal factors which make young people vulnerable to truancy and precipitating events or processes which result in truanting behaviour.

Ideologies and utopias: education professionals' views of inclusion

The paper addresses the contrast between different elements in thinking about the appropriate educational placement for children with special educational needs. In particular, it is concerned with the tension between the widespread expressions of support for the principle of inclusion and a continuing level of support for separate special school provision. Evidence from interviews with education officers and headteachers of both special and mainstream schools in the UK demonstrates the support for inclusion as an ideal but also the relatively limited influence of such an ideal on education policy. Considerable reservations were expressed about the feasibility of inclusion, based on the types and severity of childrens difficulties and the capacity of mainstream schools to meet them. Contrasting with support for inclusion was a set of views which stressed the primacy of meeting childrens individual needs as overriding an ideological commitment to inclusionist ideals. Themes within utopian thinking, in particular, the distinction between hope and desire and the different functions which can be served by utopian ideals, are used to explore tensions and contradictions in the interview responses and in educational thinking more generally.

Social deprivation, school-level achievement and special educational needs

The paper considers the relationship between social deprivation and special educational needs in the context of wider issues of social deprivation and achievement. Data were obtained from a large-scale survey of almost 300 key stage 2 teachers in 46 primary schools in England. The results show a very strong negative relationship between poverty in the population served by schools and overall levels of achievement in the school. They also show a clear, although less strong, positive relationship between poverty and the levels of special educational needs in schools.The analysis suggests that, to some extent, teachers are judging special educational needs with reference to achievement levels in their school. It also shows that the impact of poverty on special needs is largely mediated through the influence of poverty on achievement generally.The exception to this pattern is in the area of discipline problems which correlate very highly with poverty levels and where the correlation is additional to the association with achievement.The paper suggests that the register of special educational needs is not a good basis for resourcing special needs, and that resource allocation for special educational needs need not, for the most part, be treated separately from resourcing to address inequalities in achievement more generally.

Time spent on homework and academic achievement

Summary As part of a wider study of the relationship between home and school factors and academic achievement in a local authority grammar school an investigation was made of the relationship between the pupils’ self‐report of the time they spent on homework and their levels of achievement in school examinations. Pupils varied considerably in the amounts of time they reported spending on their homework, and levels of time on homework had a fairly strong positive association with academic achievement. This association was maintained when verbal reasoning scores at entry to the school and parental class and education were controlled. However, the association between time on homework and performance was considerably stronger for pupils from working‐class backgrounds and pupils whose parents had not themselves had experience of a selective school than for other pupils. Parental social class and education were only weakly related to the amount of time their children spent on homework and part‐time employment a...

Teaching methods and time on task in junior classrooms

Summary Data derived from systematic observation of pupils and teachers in 32 junior classrooms are used to consider the relationship between the teaching methods employed by teachers and the proportion of class time pupils spend engaged on curriculum tasks. Correlations between levels of whole‐class, group and individual interactions and the proportions of lesson time pupils spend working directly on curriculum tasks show that classrooms which have higher levels of whole‐class interaction have considerably higher levels of pupil time on task than classrooms with lower levels of whole‐class interactions. Further analysis shows that this association cannot be accounted for simply by pupils spending more time on task during class lessons. In particular, higher levels of whole‐class interaction are associated with pupils spending a higher proportion of time on task during periods of individual activity as well as at other times.

Pragmatism, Ideology and Educational Change: The Case of Special Educational Needs

A major theme of recent debate and policy development in the area of special education is that of inclusion: the placement of all pupils in mainstream schools and the development of curriculum and pedagogy to meet the needs of all. Analysis of national statistical data shows some movement in this direction, but of a slow and very uneven kind. An exploration of the concepts of pragmatism to describe an important aspect of LEA decision making and of ideology to describe an important aspect of pressures for inclusion helps to explain this pattern of development. The paper concludes that both approaches require further systematic empirical data on the outcomes of different patterns of educational provision.

Truancy and well-being among secondary school pupils in England

The paper considers two problematic aspects of the lives of young people: the long-standing issues of truancy from school and more recent concerns about the extent of mental well-being. It uses data from a large-scale survey, the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE). LSYPE provides a very large sample which allows for robust analysis of sub-groups within the population, data from families as well as the young people themselves and a panel design, so that characteristics of the young people at one point in time can be related to later outcomes. The results show the extent of truancy among year-10 pupils with well over one in five reporting truanting but high levels of truancy much less common. The reasons given for truancy mostly revolved around dislike of aspects of school. Truancy, even at low levels, was associated with more negative outcomes such as poor examination results and later unemployment. Data on mental well-being, based on the General Health Questionnaire, showed the extent of feelings of distress and inability to cope with everyday life with more serious levels affecting perhaps one in five of the young people. Young women were more likely to report problems of mental well-being than young men and truancy was strongly associated with poorer levels of well-being. The contrast between the way that most truants said that it was important to them to do well at school but also that disliking school was given as a reason for truancy suggests the possibility of school interventions.

Teachers and education policy: Roles and models

Abstract Four models are outlined for describing and analysing the role of teachers in the formulation of educational policy and the resulting processes of change. The model of teachers as partners in education policy making draws on a pluralist view of political processes and an assumption of a degree of autonomy for teachers and schools. A model of teachers as implementers of change draws a sharp distinction between the processes of policy making and policy execution and excludes teachers from an involvement in the former. A model of teachers as resisting change has been put forward both by those most opposed to and those most supportive of current educational policy developments. Finally, a model of teachers as policy makers in practice is proposed to describe the way in which the reality of teaching situations can lead to the independent actions of individual teachers having systematic policy effects. The applicability of these models is considered in the context of contemporary educational changes dr...

Streaming and Subject Specialism at Key Stage 2: a survey in two local authorities

Summary Following recent debates about the most appropriate form of school and curriculum organisation at Key Stage 2, a survey was conducted of the practice and views of 246 headteachers in two local education authorities (LEAs) with regard to streaming and subject specialism. The results show that there is very little streaming by ability and, except for music, very little subject specialist teaching. Practice with regard to curriculum integration was more varied although hardly any schools operated an entirely integrated curriculum. Only a minority of heads thought it would be possible to introduce streaming or specialist teaching in their schools, but the heads of the largest schools were very much more likely to think this possible. Heads’ views on these matters were considerably more varied than their practice, with a substantial minority of heads seeing value in streaming and in subject specialist teaching. The study shows the complexity of the relationship between educational beliefs and practices...

Perspectives on the National Curriculum in Primary and Secondary Schools

Summary Data on responses to the National Curriculum were gathered from personal interviews with a sample of 50 primary school head teachers, 304 primary class teachers and 223 secondary heads of department. In the primary schools concern centred around an anticipated increase in the level of assessment and record‐keeping and curriculum documentation. Increased levels of science and technology in the curriculum were also anticipated and these were the areas in which primary teachers felt in greatest need of support. In secondary schools changes were anticipated in individual subject curricula, especially in the fields of science and modem languages. The results suggest that there is great concentration in schools on a few specific areas of concern and that this may be at the expense of wider issues involved in the National Curriculum.