Professor Steve Strand has completed a number of reports for the Department for Education using the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE). The latest study links the GCSE examination results at age 16 of a nationally representative sample of over 15,000 young people with detailed data from pupil and parent interviews on attitudes, aspirations and family circumstances at aged 14, as well as their national test scores at age 14 and at age 11. The primary aim of the analysis was to focus on the relationships between various pupil, family, school and neighbourhood factors in order to better understand the reasons for differences in the educational attainment of different ethnic groups. The results revealed that:

• Social class gaps in attainment are substantial and much greater than ethnic or gender gaps.

• There is a need to move from a monolithic conception of White British as an homogeneous group to explicitly recognise the high degree of polarisation around socio-economic status (SES) within the White British group. At age 16 White British pupils are consistently the lowest attaining ethnic group whatever the SES dimension (social class of the home, mothers education, entitlement to free school meals, rented housing, single parent households and neighbourhood deprivation). ‘White British working class’ is used as a shorthand to unite these findings. In short, ethnic gaps in attainment cannot be considered in isolation from social class gaps.

• White British working class pupils (both boys and girls) and Black Caribbean working class boys were the lowest performing groups at age 16 and made the least progress during secondary school. In particular White British working class pupils show a marked decline in attainment in the last two years of secondary school.

• Pupils from most minority ethnic groups made good progress during secondary school and showed greater resilience to deprivation relative to their deprived White British peers. However Black Caribbean and Black African pupils from more advantaged homes underachieved in relation to their White British peers. The results suggest in-school factors may associated with the low attainment and poor progress of Black Caribbean pupils. The original LSYPE report (Strand, 2007) found that Black Caribbean pupils were systematically under-represented in entry to the higher tiers of the KS3 mathematics and science tests, even after adjusting for prior attainment and all other pupil, family and school factors.
• The research highlights some key proximal factors that substantially impact on the size of ethnic, social class and gender gaps in educational attainment and progress. Four factors are particularly important:

· Pupils’ educational aspirations

· Parents’ educational aspirations for their child

· Pupils academic self concept

· Frequency of completing homework.

 This does not indicate any ‘quick fix’ to long standing issues of low attainment. However it does indicate areas on which to focus, early in pupils’ school careers, to have the best chance of impacting on examination attainment at age 16.

Resources

See/Hear Steve talk about issues of ethnicity, sex, social class and attainment.

See Prof Strand's Keynote lecture to University of East London (15/11/10) (55 mins) www.uelconnect.org.uk/tom/cass/talk/ and answering questions: www.uelconnect.org.uk/tom/cass/questions/

Interviewed on BBC London (19/11/2009) mp3 file

Interviewed on Radio 5 Live (23/09/2009) mp3 file

A 3-page summary of the report can be found here

The full report can be downloaded here

The original MEP-LSYPE report (2007) can be downloaded here

Listen to a podcast by Steve Strand about the research: download mp3 file (22 mins) or go to: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/podcasts/society/16-society-at-university

See also Steve Strand's personal webpage which contains a range of other references with pdfs and/or links to journal webpages. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/cedar/staff/stevestrand/