Attainment data on England’s school pupils are more extensive in coverage, detail, quantity, accessibility and of higher quality than monitoring statistics routinely available in other European countries. These data facilitate investigation of low attainment in England’s schools and its relationship to ethnicity, gender and poverty. This article reviews longitudinal sample studies and extends this with simpler presentations of England’s national attainment statistics for education over 5 years up to 2014. The analyses show recurrent correlations of low attainment with specific ethnic minority groups, with gender and most strongly with low-income sections of society. There is a strong case, from these data and other research, that these inequalities are rooted in social and economic factors outside the school, created and sustained by neoliberal economic practices and elitist structures. It is argued that reducing the proportion of children growing up in poverty will have a bigger impact on raising average attainment levels than focusing on in-school factors.
ArcherLFrancisB (2007) Understanding Minority Ethnic Achievement: Race, Gender, Class and ‘Success’. London: Routledge.
3.
AtkinsonAB (2015) Inequality: What Can Be Done?Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
4.
BallS (2008) The Education Debate. Bristol: Policy Press.
5.
BallS (2010) New class inequalities in education: why education policy maybe looking in the wrong place! Education policy, civil society and social class. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy30(3–4): 155–166.
6.
BerlinerDC (2006) Our impoverished view of educational research. Teachers College Record108(6): 949–995.
7.
BurgessS (2014) Understanding the Success of London’s Schools. Bristol: Centre for Market and Public Organisation.
8.
CliftonJCookW (2012) Closing the Attainment Gap in England’s Schools: A Long Division. London: Institute of Public Policy Research.
9.
ConnellyRSullivanAJerrimJ (2014) Primary and Secondary Education and Poverty Review. London: Institute of Education, Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
10.
ConnollyP (2006) The effects of social class and ethnicity on gender differences in GCSE attainment: a secondary analysis of the youth cohort study of England and Wales 1997–2001. British Educational Research Journal, 32(1): 3–21.
11.
CooperKStewartK (2013) Does Money Affect Children’s Outcomes? A Systematic Review. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
12.
CorriganP (1979) Schooling the Smash Street Kids. London: Macmillan.
13.
DCSF (2007) Ensuring the Attainment of Black Pupils (The National Strategies: Secondary). Nottingham: DCSF Publications.
14.
DCSF (2008) Excellence and Enjoyment: Learning and Teaching for Black Children in the Primary Years (The National Strategies: Primary). Nottingham: DCSF Publications.
15.
DCSF (2009a) Breaking the Link between Disadvantage and Low Attainment – Everyone’s Business. London: Department for Children, Schools and Families.
DCSF (2009c) Narrowing the Gaps – Resources to Support the Achievement of Black and Minority Ethnic, Disadvantaged and Gifted and Talented Pupils (The National Strategies: Secondary). Nottingham: DCSF Publications.
18.
DemieF (2014) Language diversity and attainment in schools: implications for policy and practice. Race, Ethnicity and Education. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2014.946493
DillabroughJMcLeodJMillsM (2008) In search of allies and others: ‘troubling’ gender and education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education29(3): 301–310.
29.
DorlingD (2014) Inequality and the 1%. London: Verso.
30.
GhateDHazelN (2002) Parenting in Poor Environments. London: Jessica Kingsley.
31.
GiddensA (1999) Better than warmed over porridge. New Statesman, 12February, 25–26.
32.
GillbornD (2005) Education policy as an act of white supremacy: whiteness, critical race theory and education reform. Journal of Education Policy20(4): 485–505.
33.
GillbornD (2008) Racism and Education: Coincidence or Conspiracy. London: Routledge.
34.
GillbornD (2010) The colour of numbers: surveys, statistics and deficit-thinking about race and class. Journal of Education Policy25(2): 253–276.
KingdonGCassenR (2010) Ethnicity and low achievement in English schools. British Educational Research Journal36(3): 403–431.
43.
LaddHF (2012) Education and poverty: Confronting the evidence. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management31(2): 203–227.
44.
LevinB (2006) Schools in challenging circumstances: a reflection on what we know and what we need to know. School Effectiveness and School Improvement17(4): 399–407.
45.
MarmotM (2016) The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World. London: Bloomsbury.
46.
OECD (2012) Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools. Paris: OECD Publishing. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264130852-en
47.
OECD (2014) Income Inequality Update: Rising Inequality: Youth and Poor Fall Further Behind. Paris: Organisation for Economic and Cultural Development. www.oecd.org/social/inequality-and-poverty.htm
OppedisanoVTuratiG (2011) What Are the Causes of Educational Inequalities and of Their Evolution Over Time in Europe? Evidence from PISA (Documents de Treball de l’IEB 2011/1). Barcelona: Institut d’Economia de Barcelona.
51.
ParsonsC (2009) Explaining sustained inequalities in ethnic minority school exclusions in England – passive racism in a neoliberal grip. Oxford Review of Education35(2): 249–265.
52.
ParsonsC (2012) Schooling the Estate Kids. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
53.
ParsonsC (2013) Challenged school – challenged society: stacking the odds against the poor. Educational Review65(3): 267–283.
54.
ParsonsCThompsonT (forthcoming) Ethnicity, disadvantage and other variables in the analysis of Birmingham longitudinal school attainment datasets.
PikettyT (2014) Capital in the 21st Century. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
57.
RichardsonRWoodA (2004) The Achievement of British Pakistani Learners. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books. Available at: http://www.insted.co.uk/raising2005.pdf
58.
RollockNGillbornDVincentC. (2015) The Colour of Class: The Educational Strategies of the Black Middle Classes. Abingdon; Oxon; New York: Routledge.
59.
SkeltonCFrancisB (2009) Feminism and ‘The Schooling Scandal’. London: Routledge.
60.
SmythJWrigleyT (2013) Living on the Edge: Rethinking Poverty, Class and Schooling. New York: Peter Lang.
StevensPAJ (2007) Researching race/ethnicity and educational inequality in English secondary schools: a critical review of the research literature Between 1980 and 2005. Review of Educational Research77(2): 147–185.
63.
StrandS (2010) Do some schools narrow the gap? Differential school effectiveness by ethnicity, gender, poverty and prior attainment. School Effectiveness and School Improvement21(3): 289–314.
64.
StrandS (2011) The limits of social class in explaining ethnic gaps in educational attainment. British Educational Research Journal37(2): 197–229.
65.
StrandS (2012) The White British – Black Caribbean achievement gap: tests, tiers and teacher expectations. British Educational Research Journal38(1): 75–102.
66.
StrandS (2014a) Ethnicity, gender, social class and achievement gaps at age 16; intersectionality and ‘Getting it’ for the White working class. Research Papers in Education29(2): 131–171.
67.
StrandS (2014b) School effects and ethnic, gender and socio-economic gaps in educational achievement at age 11. Oxford Review of Education40(2): 223–245.
68.
TaylorEGillbornDLadson-BillingsG (2009) Foundations of Critical Race Theory. London: Routledge.
69.
ThomsonP (2002) Schooling the Rustbelt Kids. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham.
70.
ThruppM (1999) Schools Making a Difference: Let’s Be Realistic! School Mix, School Effectiveness and the Social Limits of Reform. Buckingham: Open University Press.
