Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes in English Schools

Abstract

This chapter explores socioeconomic inequality in educational outcomes in England. We begin by describing the key features of the English education system and highlight the characteristics of the student population. We explore the educational outcomes of socioeconomically disadvantaged young people through comparison of a number of different outcomes during educational careers. We analyze policies introduced or mooted in recent years to consider the extent to which they are likely to address these challenges successfully. These include the introduction of "academy" schools, reforms to the school curriculum, changes to education funding, the potential (re-)growth of academically selective schooling, increased investment in early years education, and an increased focused on gathering and disseminating robust evidence on 'what works' in educational attainment. Many of these changes seem unlikely to hold many lessons for other countries wishing to reduce attainment gaps. However, there are notable exceptions, particularly regarding early years' education and improving the evidence base on what practical changes schools can make to promote attainment among those from disadvantaged backgrounds. State-funded schools can be divided into two categories, generally known as "maintained" schools, which are funded and controlled by local authorities, and "academies" whose funding comes direct from the DfE and, thus, are outside local authority control but may instead be controlled by a sponsor or part of a multi-academy trust. The policy of academy schools as a turnaround model for schools deemed to be persistently failing had been introduced by the New Labour government in the mid-2000s with enforced academization being a package of measures including replacement of senior leadership and replacement of local authority oversight with external input from a sponsor. However, it was greatly extended post-2010 both for schools falling below floor standards (who would be sponsored by an external body,) or outstanding schools keen for more autonomy and financial control: academies no longer had a portion of their funding diverted to their local authority but, in return, had to provide the back office, such as payroll, previously provided centrally. This position of "academization" as a way of increasing school autonomy so that they can respond to local demands was key to the rhetoric of the coalition government's academies program. Academies were also part of a shift to a "self-improving school-led system" (Greany & Higham, 2018) with academies (particularly those underperforming) encouraged to join multi-academy trusts which replaced many of the centralized functions of local authorities. Formally, parents can exert a great deal of choice over the school to which they send their child. However, popular schools are often highly oversubscribed, resulting in schools picking pupils rather than vice versa. This school selection of pupils is largely based on geography (where the child lives) through a system of catchment areas, rather t...

Inequality of Opportunity in Tertiary Education: Evidence from Europe

“…lower EIOp). On the other hand, higher shares of students enrolled in vocational education (and, symmetrically, lower shares of students enrolled in general programmes) are often found in countries characterized by dual systems of education and early tracking, both of which tend to exacerbate the impact of family socio-economic background on educational inequalities (Anders & Henderson, 2019 ). As for the gross enrolment rate in tertiary education, previous studies (Triventi, 2013 ) have found that it tends to be positively associated with measures of inequality in higher education, possibly as a result of increased competition for the “tickets” (i.e.…”