Factors associated with achievement: Key stage 4

(2015) - Alex Sutherland, Sonia Ilie, Anna Vignoles, RAND Europe

Journal: Department for Education
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Tags:: #paper #Attainment #SocialClass #Education
Cite Key:: [@Sutherland2015]

Abstract

RAND Europe and the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge were commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) to assess the quality of the current measure of socio-economic deprivation used by DfE, namely free school meals (FSM) eligibility, and to identify potential alternative proxy indicators.

Notes

“A measure of whether the pupil was ever eligible for FSM in the last five years (Ever5FSM)1 explains 23.3% of the variation in pupil achievement at GCSE when entered in a model alongside a set of basic controls2” (Sutherland et al., 2015, p. 8)

“Parental occupation, parental education, and other household characteristics are slightly better predictors of pupil achievement than FSM eligibility (current or Ever5FSM), accounting for 25.6%, 25.8% and 24.4% of the variance, respectively” (Sutherland et al., 2015, p. 8)

“Parental income accounted for 20.6% of the variance, the lowest of all the considered proxies:” (Sutherland et al., 2015, p. 9)

“Setting aside data that describe the socio-economic circumstances of children, prior attainment at the end of primary school is found to be the most powerful available predictor of secondary school attainment.” (Sutherland et al., 2015, p. 9)

“There were significant regional variations in attainment at the end of secondary school after controlling for basic characteristics and deprivation proxies.” (Sutherland et al., 2015, p. 9)

“In keeping with previous research, there were residual differences in attainment when comparing ethnic minorities to White British children, after controlling for socio-economic deprivation proxies that account for much of the underachievement by some minority ethnic groups” (Sutherland et al., 2015, p. 9)