How does social class affect educational achievement? Learning Outcome
Explain what factors IN school and OUTSIDE of school contribute to educational achievement based on class
Differential Educational
Achievement
CLASS
GENDER
ETHNICITY
Pattern?
External reasons
Internal reasons
Working class pupils in general achieve less than middle-class pupils in education.
W/C less likely to get 5 A*-C
W/C less likely to go to university
Why is he more likely to fail his education than him?
Is he less intelligent than him?
Which is the strongest determinant for educational achievement; class, gender or ethnicity?
How do schools measure
“class” achievement?
The pupil premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in
England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between them and their peers.
Includes; FSM
SEN
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-18828654
http://www.bbc. co.uk/news/educ ation-27886925
http://www.teleg raph.co.uk/educa tion/educationne ws/10501588/Ofst ed-warns-over-wa sted-potential-o f-poor-white-pup ils.html Social class backgro und has a powerful influence o n a child’s chances of success in the education system.
Social class 'determines child's success'
By Richard Garner, Education Editor
Thursday, 18 September 2008
Children's social class is still the most significant factor in determining their exam success in state schools, the Government's head of teacher training acknowledges today. In an interview with The Independent, Graham Holley, the chief executive of the
Training and Development Agency, said: "The performance of a school and a child in it is highly linked to social class.
Employment
and gross earnings for full-time employees working age: highest "If you turn the clockrates back on weekly pupils in school today 15ofyears andby predict their qualification, spring 2003, UK outcomes from where they were born, you can do it.
It's official: class matters
A major new study shows that social background determines pupils' success.
Matthew Taylor
The Guardian, Tuesday 28 February 2006
It is a familiar scene: mum and dad hunched at the kitchen table, poring over Ofsted reports and brochures, trying to fathom which is the best school for their child. But a new report, obtained by Education Guardian, suggests that these well-meaning parents, and thousands like them, are looking in the wrong place. Instead of trying to decode inspectors' reports or work out whether academies are better than voluntary-aided schools or trusts superior to community comprehensives, they need look no further than the average earnings among parents.
A study by academics at University College London (UCL) and Kings College London has given statistical backbone to the view that the overwhelming factor in how well children do is not what type of school they attend- but social class. It appears to show what has often been said but never proved: that the current league tables measure not the best, but the most middle-class schools; and that even the government's "value-added" tables fail to take account of the most crucial factor in educational outcomes - a pupil's address.
This unprecedented project has revealed that a child's social background is the crucial factor in academic performance, and that a school's success is based not on its teachers, the way it is run, or what type of school it is, but, overwhelmingly, on the class background of its pupils.
Percentage of pupils achieving 5 or more GCSE Grades
A*C by parents’ social class in England & Wales, 2004
Higher professional
Lower professional
Intermediate
Lower supervisory
Routine and semiroutine
Unemployed / not classified
77%
65%
53%
40%
33%
33%
Social class and educational achievement.
Now that we’ve looked at what’s happening to kids’ results in terms of their social class background, we need to focus on why these patterns persistently occur.
Working class underachievement in