How does the choice of A‐level subjects vary with students' socio‐economic status in English state schools?

Abstract

The reasons why students from lower socio‐economic groups are under‐represented at high status universities are not yet entirely understood, but evidence suggests that part of the gap may be a consequence of differential choice of A‐levels by social background. The Russell Group of universities has since 2011 published guidance on A‐level subject choices, describing some A‐levels as ‘facilitating’ in that choosing these helps keep the largest number of Russell Group degree courses open. The numbers of students gaining AAB in facilitating subjects has subsequently been developed as a performance measure for individual schools and sixth form colleges, and, in aggregate, as a government Social Mobility Indicator. While it is clear that there is a gap between the proportions of students in maintained and private schools achieving this measure, there is little other work to date on how social background is related to the take‐up of facilitating subjects, or to a more fine‐grained categorization of all the large number of ‘non‐facilitating’ subjects. I develop a taxonomy of all 96 A‐levels certified for English students in 2014/15 beyond the facilitating/non‐facilitating dichotomy according to Russell Group members’ expressed preferences, and use it to analyse the A‐level subject choices of three A‐level cohorts (2010–2012), using National Pupil Database data. I find that large differentials in A‐level subject choice exist by social background, particularly for facilitating subjects. These differentials substantially disappear when GCSE attainment and subject choices are taken into account. Closing this choice gap at A‐level is likely therefore to depend on reducing differentials in attainment and subject choice by social background at GCSE. The introduction of the EBacc may help with the GCSE subject choice element.

Does what you study at age 14–16 matter for educational transitions post-16?

“…The existing literature shows that subject choice at age 16-18 matters for educational trajectories, income, and social mobility (for example Chevalier, 2011;Dilnot, 2016;Dolton & Vignoles, 2002). Previous research has found that there are large differentials in subject choice by social background at GCSE (e.g.…”

“…and A-level (e.g. Dilnot, 2016). More specifically, young people from higher socioeconomic backgrounds (SES) are more likely to take facilitating subjects (see for example, Dilnot, 2016;Toth, Sammons, & Sylva, 2015;Vidal Rodeiro, 2007).…”

“…Dilnot, 2016). More specifically, young people from higher socioeconomic backgrounds (SES) are more likely to take facilitating subjects (see for example, Dilnot, 2016;Toth, Sammons, & Sylva, 2015;Vidal Rodeiro, 2007). Moreover, there is a particular preference for maths and sciences among these higher SES groups (Gill & Bell, 2013;Gorard & See, 2009).…”

“…Moreover, there is a particular preference for maths and sciences among these higher SES groups (Gill & Bell, 2013;Gorard & See, 2009). These differences are partially explained by prior attainment at GCSE, but may also be related to GCSE subject choice, as early educational choices matter for later ones (Dilnot, 2016), in particular for access to higher status universities (Crawford, Dearden, Micklewright, & Vignoles, 2017).…”

The relationship between A-level subject choice and league table score of university attended: the ‘facilitating’, the ‘less suitable’, and the counter-intuitive

“…But that still gives a wide variety of subjects from which students may choose, and these choices may make a difference to their chances of acceptance at university in general, and high-status university in particular. As discussed elsewhere in this issue, schools may constrain choices at age 14 (Anders, Henderson, Moulton, & Sullivan, 2018) which has a knock-on effect on A-level choices (Dilnot, 2016). Most students applying to university do so during Year 13 with grades predicted by their schools in each of their A-levels, and offers of places from universities are made in terms of both the A-level subjects being followed and the required grade to be obtained.…”