Steve Strand

The limits of social class in explaining ethnic gaps in educational attainment

This paper reports an analysis of the educational attainment and progress between age 11 and age 14 of over 14,500 students from the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Young People in England. The mean attainment gap in national tests at age 14 between White British and several ethnic minority groups was large, more than three times the size of the gender gap, but at the same time only about one‐third of the size of the social class gap. Socioeconomic variables could account for the attainment gaps for Black African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students, but not for Black Caribbean students. Further controls for parental and student attitudes, expectations and behaviours indicated minority ethnic groups were on average more advantaged on these measures than White British students, but this was not reflected proportionately in their levels of attainment. Black Caribbean students were distinctive as the only group making less progress than White British students between age 11 and 14 and this cou...

Educational aspirations in inner city schools

This research aimed to assess the nature and level of pupils’ educational aspirations and to elucidate the factors that influence these aspirations. A sample of five inner city comprehensive secondary schools were selected by their local authority because of poor pupil attendance, below‐average examination results and low rates of continuing in full‐time education after the age of 16. Schools were all ethnically mixed and coeducational. Over 800 pupils aged 12–14 completed a questionnaire assessing pupils’ experience of home, school and their peers. A sub‐sample of 48 pupils, selected by teachers to reflect ethnicity and ability levels in individual schools, also participated in detailed focus group interviews. There were no significant differences in aspirations by gender or year group, but differences between ethnic groups were marked. Black African, Asian Other and Pakistani groups had significantly higher educational aspirations than the White British group, who had the lowest aspirations. The results suggest the high aspirations of Black African, Asian Other and Pakistani pupils are mediated through strong academic self‐concept, positive peer support, a commitment to schooling and high educational aspirations in the home. They also suggest that low educational aspirations may have different mediating influences in different ethnic groups. The low aspirations of White British pupils seem to relate most strongly to poor academic self‐concept and low educational aspirations in the home, while for Black Caribbean pupils disaffection, negative peers and low commitment to schooling appear more relevant. Interviews with pupils corroborated the above findings and further illuminated the factors students described as important in their educational aspirations. The results are discussed in relation to theories of aspiration which stress its nature as a cultural capacity.

Pupil Progress during Key Stage 1: a value added analysis of school effects

Abstract Pupils in Wandsworth schools who completed baseline assessment at the start of reception class in 1992/93 were tracked through to their National Curriculum (NC) end of Key Stage 1 (KS1) assessments in 1995. Baseline results were used to assess the educational progress of pupils between the age of 4 and 7 years, and the ‘value added’ by schools. Girls made more progress than boys during KS1, increasing the size of the gender gap in attainment. Pupils entitled to free school meals (FSM) started with lower attainment and fell further behind their peers during the course of KS1. In contrast pupils with English as a second language (ESL) caught up with their monolingual English speaking peers. School compositional effects were also noted: pupils made on average more progress in schools with a high proportion of girls, and less progress in schools with a high proportion of pupils entitled to FSM, a high proportion of ESL pupils and where the school average on the baseline was high. Differences between ...

Ethnic group, sex and economic disadvantage : Associations with pupils' educational progress from Baseline to the end of Key Stage 1

Abstract Very few studies have explored the associations between ethnic group, sex, economic disadvantage and school attended on pupils’ progress during their earliest years at school (age 4‐7). The present study reports an analysis of the educational progress made by over 5000 pupils between Baseline assessment at age 4 and national end of Key Stage 1 (KS1) tests at age 7. There were marked differences in pupil attainment associated with ethnic group, sex and economic disadvantage, both at Baseline and at the end of KS1. In general, differences between groups of pupils tended to increase rather than decrease over time. Pupils entitled to free school meals (FSM) made less progress in all subjects than pupils not entitled to FSM, girls made more progress than boys in reading and writing but less progress in mathematics and Caribbean pupils made less progress, and Chinese pupils more progress, than English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish (ESWNI) pupils. There were, however, significant interactions betw...

Ethnicity, gender, social class and achievement gaps at age 16: intersectionality and 'Getting it' for the white working class

Perhaps the most prevailing inequalities in educational achievement in England are those associated with socio-economic status (SES), ethnicity and gender. However, little research has sought to compare the relative size of these gaps or to explore interactions between these factors. This paper analyses the educational achievement at age 11, 14 and 16 of over 15,000 students from the nationally representative longitudinal study of young people in England. At age 16, the achievement gap associated with social class was twice as large as the biggest ethnic gap and six times as large as the gender gap. However, the results indicate that ethnicity, gender and SES do not combine in a simple additive fashion; rather, there are substantial interactions particularly between ethnicity and SES and between ethnicity and gender. At age 16 among low SES students, all ethnic minority groups achieve significantly better than White British students (except Black Caribbean boys who do not differ from White British boys), but at high SES only Indian students outperform White British students. A similar pattern of results was apparent in terms of progress age 11–16, with White British low SES students and Black Caribbean boys (particularly the more able) making the least progress. Parents’ educational aspirations for their child and students’ own educational aspirations, academic self-concept, frequency of completing homework, truancy and exclusion could account for the minority ethnic advantage at low SES, but conditioning on such factors simultaneously indicates substantial ethnic underachievement at average and high SES. Accounts of educational achievement framed exclusively in terms of social class, ethnicity or gender are insufficient, and the results challenge educational researchers to develop more nuanced accounts of educational success or failure.

Do some schools narrow the gap? Differential school effectiveness by ethnicity, gender, poverty, and prior achievement

This study analyses the educational progress of an entire national cohort of over 530,000 pupils in England between age 7 in 2000 and age 11 in 2004. The results show that Black Caribbean boys not entitled to free school meals, and particularly the more able pupils, made significantly less progress than their White British peers. There is no evidence that the gap results from Black Caribbean pupils attending less effective schools. There is also no evidence of differential effectiveness in relation to ethnic group; schools that were strong in facilitating the progress of White British pupils were equally strong in facilitating the progress of Black Caribbean pupils. There was some evidence of differential school effectiveness by pupil prior achievement, gender, and poverty, but the absolute sizes of the effects were small. The results suggest the poor progress of Black Caribbean pupils reflects a systemic issue rather than the influence of a small number of “low quality” schools.

The White British–Black Caribbean achievement gap: tests, tiers and teacher expectations

A recent analysis of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) indicates a White British–Black Caribbean achievement gap at age 14 which cannot be accounted for by socio‐economic variables or a wide range of contextual factors. This article uses the LSYPE to analyse patterns of entry to the different tiers of national mathematics and science tests at age 14. Each tier gives access to a limited range of outcomes with the highest test outcomes achievable only if students are entered by their teachers to the higher tiers. The results indicate that Black Caribbean students are systematically under‐represented in entry to the higher tiers relative to their White British peers. This gap persists after controls for prior attainment, socio‐economic variables and a wide range of pupil, family, school and neighbourhood factors. Differential entry to test tiers provides a window on teacher expectation effects which may contribute to the achievement gap.

Evidence of Ethnic Disproportionality in Special Education in an English Population

Differences in the proportions of students identified as having special educational needs (SENs) across ethnic groups have historically been of concern in the United Kingdom and the United States. However, the absence of student-level data has hindered investigation of the reasons for such disproportionality. The authors present an analysis of the 2005 Pupil Level Annual School Census for 6.5 million students aged 5 to 16 years in England. Logistic regression analyses were completed to calculate the odds ratios of having identified SENs both before and after adjusting for the influence of age, gender, and socioeconomic disadvantage (poverty). Poverty and gender had stronger associations than ethnicity with the overall prevalence of SENs. However, after controlling for these effects, significant over- and underrepresentation of some minority ethnic groups relative to White British students remained. The nature and degree of these disproportionalities varied across categories of SENs and minority ethnic groups and were not restricted to judgmental categories of SENs.

Pupil Mobility, Attainment, and Progress during Key Stage 1: A Study in Cautious Interpretation.

This article explores the association between pupil mobility and attainment in national end of Key Stage 1 (KS1) tests for over 6000 pupils in an English urban education authority. The results indicate that pupil mobility during the early years is associated with significantly lower levels of pupil attainment in reading, writing and mathematics tests at age 7. However, mobile pupils are more likely than stable pupils to be entitled to free school meals, to have English as an additional language, to require higher levels of support in learning English, to have identified and more severe special educational needs and to have higher levels of absence. When the relative impact of these factors is considered, the effect of mobility, while still statistically significant, is substantially reduced. When pupils baseline assessment results are also included in order to assess educational progress between the age of 4 and 7 years, mobility has a significant effect only on progress in mathematics, and even here the impact is low relative to other pupil background factors. The article concludes that the direct effect of mobility on pupil attainment is likely to be small. However, the implications of mobility for school and classroom management, planning and resourcing are substantial. Examples of good practice and implications for policy are discussed.

English Language Acquisition and Educational Attainment at the End of Primary School.

This paper analyses the national key stage 2 test results for 2300 11‐year‐old pupils in an inner London LEA. A range of concurrent pupil background data was also collected, including whether pupils spoke English as an additional language (EAL), and if so, their stage of fluency in English. EAL pupils at the early stages (1–3) of developing fluency had significantly lower KS2 test scores in all subjects than their monolingual peers. However, EAL pupils who were fully fluent in English achieved significantly higher scores in all KS2 tests than their monolingual peers. The negative association with attainment for the early stages of fluency remained significant after controls for a range of other pupil characteristics, including age, gender, free school meal entitlement, stage of special educational need and ethnic group, although these factors effectively explained the higher attainment of the ‘fully fluent’ group. We conclude that EAL is not itself a good guide to levels of attainment, and a measure of stage of English fluency is necessary to interpret associations with test performance. Alternative measures which focus only on the very early stages of English proficiency, such as the QCA ‘language in common’ steps, are inadequate to assess the impact of bilingualism for all but the very earliest learners of English. Given the uneven distribution of EAL pupils across the country, those schools and local education authorities with high concentrations of pupils in the early stages of learning English are likely to be adversely affected in school achievement and attainment tables. The policy implications for national data collection and for the use of such data are considered.