Attainment gaps between the most deprived and advantaged schools

(2009) - P Noden, A West

Journal: The Sutton Trust
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Tags:: #paper #Attainment #SocialClass #Education
Cite Key:: [@Noden2009]

Abstract

One of the defining characteristics of countries such as the UK with low social mobility are stark, persistent gaps in the school results between children from deprived backgrounds and their more advantaged counterparts. Far from acting as the great social leveler, education systems can perpetuate inequalities, and enable the privileged in society to consolidate their already substantial advantages for future generations. The Trust's central concern however is with those children on the wrong side of the educational divide; the price of unfulfilled potential is a lifetime of missed opportunity - a loss not only for the individual but the country as a whole. As the current Secretary of State for Children, Families and Schools has recently said, the attainment gap is ‘the devil in our education system’.

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