The real facts that underlie what the media, educationalists and policy-makers term the underachievement of Black children are far more complex than is often realised. Only by developing a long-term and relative perspective on the statistics of educational performance and achievement, within a context that acknowledges class, social and local factors, as well as the differential impacts of current educational policy, can a true picture be obtained. Addressing the widespread concern in the Black community about education demands more than simplistically blaming either teacher racism or Black culture.
1 By Black in this context, researchers and commentators usually include children who are categorised as Black or Black British, African, Caribbean and others of Black descent.
2.
2 Committee of Inquiry into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Groups, chairman Lord Swann, Education for All (London, HMSO, 1985), Cmnd. 9453.
3.
3 Committee of Inquiry into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Groups, chairman A. Rampton, West Indian Children in our Schools (London, HMSO, 1981), Cmnd. 8273.
4.
4 DfES, Youth Cohort Study: the activities and experiences of 16 year olds: England and Wales 2002 (SFR/042003, 20 February 2003).
5.
5 S. Demack, D. Drew and M. Grimsley , ‘Myths about underachievement: gender, ethnic and social class differences in GCSE results 1988-93’ , paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Queen’s University, Belfast, August 1998.
6.
6 S. Demack , D. Drew and M. Grimsley , ‘Minding the Gap: ethnic, gender and social class differences in attainment at 16, 1988-95’ , Race, Ethnicity and Education (Vol. 3, no. 2, 2000).
7.
7 Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), ‘Raising the attainment of minority ethnic pupils’, (London, OFSTED, 1999), pp. 7-8.
8.
8 D. Gillborn and H. S. Mirza, Educational Inequality: mapping race, class and gender. A synthesis of research evidence (London, OFSTED, 2000), HMI 232.
9.
9 Ibid., pp. 12-15.
10.
10 See, e.g., Sarah Cassidy, Independent (21 February 2003); BBC News 20 February 2003.
11.
11 Note that the YCS data of 2002 reported the GCSE results of 2001.
12.
12 BBC News report (23 January 2001).
13.
13 Demack et al (2000) op. cit., pp. 131-7. Gillborn and Mirza (2000) op. cit., p. 22.
14.
14 Gillborn and Mirza (2000), op. cit.
15.
15 Demack et al (2000) op. cit., p. 133.
16.
16 S. Warren and D. Gillborn , ‘Race equality and education in Birmingham: report commissioned by Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Race Action Partnership’ ( Birmingham , 2003).
17.
17 For example, two London conferences ‘London schools and the Black child’ , held on 16 March 2002 and 10 May 2003 at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster, London, drew more than 2,000 delegates.
18.
18 J. Hobcraft, ‘International and life-course transmission of social exclusion, poverty, family disruption and contact with the police’ (London, LSE Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion, 1998), Case Paper 15.
19.
19 J. Blanden , A. Goodman , P. Gregg and S. Machin , ‘Changes in intergenerational mobility in Britain’ ( London, LSE Centre for the Economics of Education , 2002).
20.
20 A. West and A. Hind , ‘Secondary school admissions in England: exploring the extent of overt and covert selection’ ( London, LSE Centre for Educational Research , 2003).
21.
21 DfES, Youth Cohort Study (2003) op. cit., Table D.
23 D. Gillborn and D. Youdell, Rationing Education: policy, practice, reform and equity (Buckingham, Open University Press, 2000), see chapters 4, 5 and 6.
24.
24 Ibid., chapter 8.
25.
25 DfES, Aiming High: raising the achievement of minority ethnic pupils (Nottingham, DfES Publications, 2003).
