Stephen Gorard

An international comparison of equity in education systems

This paper uses pupil responses to the PISA study in 2000 for all EU countries. Using indicators of the pupil intakes to schools and their outcomes it computes segregation indices for 15 countries, and then tries to explain the resulting patterns in terms of the characteristics of national school systems. Segregation by sex in each country is explicable by its provision of single‐sex schools, religious schools, and the use of academic selection in allocating school places. Segregation by outcome is largely explicable by the use of academic (and other forms of) selection. Segregation by parental occupation or country of birth is lower in countries allocating places at school through elements of choice or with relatively little governmental control of schools rather than use of rigid catchment areas or selection. In all countries there are small gaps between the performance of boys and girls in reading, in favour of girls. This gap is generally smaller in countries with the highest overall scores. Overall, the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Finland and Denmark show less segregation on all indicators, while Germany, Greece and Belgium show the most. The UK has below average segregation in terms of all indicators except sex, despite a commonly held but unfounded view that segregation in the UK is among the worst in the world.

Whose Internet is it Anyway? Exploring Adults' (Non)Use of the Internet in Everyday Life

It is acknowledged that communication researchers need to develop more sophisticated and nuanced accounts of the social and individual dynamics of the internet in everyday life. Based on a household survey of 1001 adults with 100 in-depth follow-up interviews, the present article explores people’s (non)use of the internet by asking: (1) who is (and who is not) using the internet in everyday life; (2) for what purposes people are using the internet and how are they developing their own constructions of the internet; and (3) how these understandings and uses of the internet are shaped by existing socioeconomic factors and circumstances. From this basis the article goes on to identify the key issues underlying adults’ (non)use of the internet in terms of interest, relevance, mediation of significant others and the role of household dynamics. It also considers, from this basis, how non-users may be encouraged to make use of the internet.

Serious doubts about school effectiveness

This paper considers the model of school effectiveness (SE) currently dominant in research, policy and practice in England (although the concerns it raises are international). It shows, principally through consideration of initial and propagated error, that SE results cannot be relied upon. By considering the residual difference between the predicted and obtained score for all pupils in any phase of education, SE calculations leave the results to be disproportionately made up of relative error terms. Adding contextual information confuses, but does not help this situation. Having shown and illustrated the sensitivity of SE to this propagation of initial errors, and therefore why it is unworkable, the paper considers some of the reasons why SE has become dominant, outlines the damage this dominant model causes and begins to shape alternative ways of considering what schools do. Numbers are like people; torture them enough and they will tell you anything.

What is Segregation? A Comparison of Measures in Terms of ‘Strong’ and ‘Weak’ Compositional Invariance

Measures of inequality form the backdrop to a variety of sociological investigations, allowing the description of gaps in opportunity by occupational class, gender or ethnicity, for example, and of trends in these differences over time and place. These preliminary descriptive patterns can then be explored in more detail to uncover their socio-economic determinants, leading to the reduction of inequality. However, it has become clear from the ‘index wars’ dating back to at least the 1930s that measuring inequality is not a simple issue. To some extent the results obtained in an investigation and, therefore, the definition of further problems to be explored, are dependent on the precise nature of the measures used. This paper concentrates on measures of segregation. It considers a number of the methods available to the analyst concerned with the patterns of spread of socio-economic disadvantage between institutions. It focuses on measures of evenness and exposure, rehearsing the relative advantages of each approach and showing how closely related they are in practice. It introduces for the first time the notions of strong and weak compositional invariance, showing that some common indices of segregation, such as the dissimilarity index, display only weak compositional invariance. It therefore advocates the use instead, in appropriate circumstances, of the precise exchange proportion, termed here the ‘segregation index’. This has been developed and used successfully in our long-term study of the changing socio-economic composition of schools in the UK.

REVISITING A 90‐YEAR‐OLD DEBATE: THE ADVANTAGES OF THE MEAN DEVIATION

ABSTRACT:  This paper discusses the reliance of numerical analysis on the concept of the standard deviation, and its close relative the variance. It suggests that the original reasons why the standard deviation concept has permeated traditional statistics are no longer clearly valid, if they ever were. The absolute mean deviation, it is argued here, has many advantages over the standard deviation. It is more efficient as an estimate of a population parameter in the real-life situation where the data contain tiny errors, or do not form a completely perfect normal distribution. It is easier to use, and more tolerant of extreme values, in the majority of real-life situations where population parameters are not required. It is easier for new researchers to learn about and understand, and also closely linked to a number of arithmetic techniques already used in the sociology of education and elsewhere. We could continue to use the standard deviation instead, as we do presently, because so much of the rest of traditional statistics is based upon it (effect sizes, and the F-test, for example). However, we should weigh the convenience of this solution for some against the possibility of creating a much simpler and more widespread form of numeric analysis for many.

History, place and the learning society: towards a sociology of lifetime learning

This paper aims to shift the debate on the Learning Society away from the normative focus which has predominated hitherto. Rather than beginning with questions about what a Learning Society ought to constitute, we seek to engage with the patterns of participation in learning through the life‐course and their determinants. Our discussion begins with an examination of the way in which the official discourse of the Learning Society is dominated by human capital theory. The critical evaluation of the latter is thus a serious undertaking. Human capital theory involves an unwarranted abstraction of economic behaviour from social relations more widely; participation in lifetime learning cannot be understood in terms of the narrow calculation of utility maximization. This critique provides the basis for the development of a more satisfactory theoretical account, in which learning behaviour is conceived as the product of individual calculation and active choice, but within parameters set by both access to learning...

The More Things Change ... The Missing Impact of Marketisation

Abstract This paper uses longitudinal data from the secondary schools in six of the new unitary authorities in South Wales—Cardiff, Swansea, Merthyr Tydfil, Dridgend, Caerphilfy and Rhondda Cynon Taff local education authorities—to provide an empirical test of the academic debate concerning the likely effects of school choice on the social composition of differing schools. Using several measures of segregation between schools, including a new one calculated from eligibility for free meals, the study concludes that the introduction of choice reforms for England and Wales in 1988 may have had a small but significant positive effect on the pre‐existing social stratification between schools. In coming to this conclusion, the study inevitably raises questions about the findings generated by some previous qualitative studies of markets and choice in education.

'Well. That about wraps it up for school choice research': A state of the art review

This article describes some of the progress that has been made in researching the policy, process and impact of parental choice of schools. It concentrates on choice of a secondary school in the UK since 1988, although reference is also made to research from further afield where particularly relevant. Choice can be considered from many points of view, including society, school, parent and child. These different perspectives have produced fascinating insights, along with some intellectual tensions, which this article attempts to capture. However, it seems that researchers may now be ready to leave the field of school choice and move on to pastures new. This may therefore be an appropriate time to summarise what we know, and what else needs to be known.

The Impact of Socio-Economic Status on Participation and Attainment in Science.

In this paper we combine the findings from two recent studies relating to participation and attainment in school science – a re‐analysis of existing official data for England and a review of wider international research evidence in the literature relevant to the UK. Although the secondary data are drawn mainly from England, the comprehensiveness of these datasets, together with our inclusion of a review of international studies on maths and science participation provides a useful reference point for an international audience. The research was prompted by concerns over a reduction in the uptake of the physical sciences post‐16 and especially in higher education and interest in ways of encouraging the study of science by students from less prestigious socio‐economic status backgrounds. Such concerns are not unique to the UK. Using large‐scale official datasets we show that participation and attainment in science are stratified by socio‐economic status. Students from poorer families are less likely to take sciences at post‐16 than many other subjects and those who do are then less likely to obtain grades high enough to encourage further study of the subject. No conclusive evidence has been found to explain this satisfactorily. Plausible reasons suggested in the literature include the relative scarcity of local opportunities putting off those who do not wish to study away from home or the perceived time demands of studying science, and so the difficulties of combining part‐time study and part‐time work for those needing to continue earning while studying. Direct support from professional parents may also lead to greater participation in post‐16 science for students from higher SES. Perhaps the simplest explanation is that participation in science at any level is often predicated upon success at the previous educational stage. There are clear differences in science attainment at age 16 between students of differing backgrounds, which could explain the subsequent differential participation. However, these differences are not dissimilar to those for all subjects. The largest gap presented in the paper is between students eligible and not eligible for free school meals. We also show that these patterns appear early in the life of children. At ages 7 and 11, attainment in the three core subjects (English, maths and science) is negatively related to living in an area of deprivation. The paper ends with a discussion of suggestions for research, policy and practice emerging from this review of the evidence.

Who Is Missing from Higher Education

This paper discusses the difficulties of establishing a clear count of UK higher education students in terms of the categories used for widening participation, such as occupational background or ethnicity. Using some of the best and most complete data available, such as the annual figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the paper then establishes that there is little evidence of a simple consistent pattern of under‐representation within these categories, except perhaps for men and students of white ethnicity. However, once prior qualifications are taken into account there is no evidence that potential students are unfairly and disproportionately denied access to higher education in terms of occupation, ethnicity, sex or disability. This has important implications for what we mean by widening participation in higher education and how we might achieve it.