Moving the goalposts: Education policy and 25 years of the Black/White achievement gap

Abstract

Drawing on a secondary analysis of official statistics, this paper examines the changing scale of the inequality of achievement between White students and their Black British peers who identify their family heritage as Black Caribbean. We examine a 25‐year period from the introduction of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), in 1988, to the 20th anniversary of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 2013. It is the first time that the Black/White gap has been analysed over such a long period. The paper reviews the changing place of the Black/White gap in education debates and notes that, despite periods when race equality has appeared to be high on the political agenda, it has never held a consistent place at the heart of policy. Our findings shed light on how the Black/White gap is directly affected, often in negative ways, by changes in education policy. Specifically, whenever the key benchmark for achievement has been redefined, it has had the effect of restoring historic levels of race inequity; in essence, policy interventions to ‘raise the bar’ by toughening the benchmark have actively widened gaps and served to maintain Black disadvantage. Throughout the entire 25‐year period, White students were always at least one and a half times more likely to attain the dominant benchmark than their Black peers. Our findings highlight the need for a sustained and explicit focus on race inequity in education policy. To date, the negative impacts of policy changes have been much more certain and predictable than occasional attempts to reduce race inequality.

The contribution of intersectionality to quantitative research into educational inequalities

“…Quantitative researchers now need to go further by embracing intersectionality theory, along with the insights of qualitative research, and using it to develop and test explicitly intersectional hypotheses. While it is still imperative to recognise the overriding impact of singly‐defined characteristics such as ethnicity (Gillborn et al., ), we trust that this article will motivate quantitative educational researchers to apply the concept of intersectionality in their work. We hope that it will become common practice (where there is justification to do so) to test for interactions when considering inequalities both within and across countries, and over time, motivating and contextualising this approach using intersectionality theory.…”

“…This raises the question of whether the studies described can be considered fully ‘intersectional’. Moreover, some may take issue with studies referring to intersectionality without empirically considering structural factors and systems of power that give rise to inequalities (Gillborn et al., ). While recognising these critiques, we believe that the studies discussed still constitute an important step in our understanding of intersectional inequalities, and should not be dismissed simply for not applying the theory comprehensively.…”

Critical race theory in England: impact and opposition

“…Warmington et al (2018) have argued that, despite periods when race equality has appeared to be on the political agenda (as in the wake of the Macpherson Report, 1999), it has never held a consistent place at the heart of policy. Gillborn, Demack et al (2017) have focused on the ways in which successive government policy has redefined the benchmarks for achievement at Key Stage 4 (the end of compulsory schooling), noting that whenever benchmarks have been redefined, it has had the effect of restoring ethnic gaps in achievement.…”

Social justice, race and class in education in England: competing perspectives

“…Critical Race Theory (CRT) is to be applauded for the rejuvenated attention given to racism and race inequality in the UK, edging aside the themes of 'multicultural education', 'anti-racist education' and debate about integration or respect for difference. David Gillborn has been impressive, consistent and tireless in promoting this theoretical position in the UK (Gillborn, 2006a(Gillborn, , 2008(Gillborn, , 2010aGillborn et al, 2017 Britain in most areas of public life and the criminal justice system (Lammy, 2017;EHRC, 2016b), employment in many sectors, particularly at senior levels (H M Government, 2017) and in terms of attainment and exclusions in the education system.…”