Poverty, not schools, to blame for exam results gap

Press release:embargoed until 00:01 hrs, Tuesday,September 23rd
Poverty, not schools, to blame for exam
results gap
Politicians who blame “failing schools” entirely for stark differences in achievement
between disadvantaged pupils and their better-off peers have misunderstood the nature
of the problem, a prominent education academic will say tomorrow.
Professor Steve Strand, of the University of Oxford, says the pervasiveness of this
attainment gap, across all types of schools, suggests that factors outside of the
institutions’ control, rather than any school-related policy or classroom practice, lie behind
it.
Moreover, current efforts to hold schools to account, which largely deny the effects of
poverty on achievement, may be making it harder for institutions serving disadvantaged
communities by discouraging talented teachers from working in classrooms which have
been put under such pressure.
The findings come in a paper being presented by Professor Strand to BERA today. The
narrative that schools are “failing” where they do not close achievement gaps has been
prevalent among UK education ministers under both the last Labour and coalition
governments.
Professor Strand, one of England’s most experienced researchers into school results
data, presents an analysis showing that the performance gap between pupils eligible for
free school meals (FSM) and those who are not is remarkably consistent, whether the
institution is seen to be of high quality by Ofsted or not.
The gap between non-FSM and FSM pupils in Ofsted “outstanding” schools, in terms of
the proportion gaining five GCSE A*-Cs including English and maths, is 25 points, with 75
per cent of non-FSM achieving this benchmark, against 50 per cent of FSM students.
In schools adjudged by Ofsted as “good”, the figures are 64 per cent (non-FSM) and 39
per cent (FSM), which again is a 25 point gap. The corresponding performance difference
in Ofsted “satisfactory/requires improvement” and “inadequate” schools is very similar, at
22 points.
Separately, considering just secondary schools, Professor Strand analysed whether
pupils eligible for free school meals made as much progress as their non-FSM peers
between joining the school at 11 and taking their GCSEs.
Improving Education through Research
www.bera.ac.uk
He found that there were some variations between schools but that generally, FSM
students made three GCSE grades’ less progress than non-FSM pupils, even after taking
into account other background factors.
There was, Professor Strand found, an FSM gap in nearly all schools: 92 per cent of
English secondary schools had a gap between FSM and non-FSM pupils of at least one
GCSE grade overall, while FSM pupils were ahead by a similar amount in only 2 per cent
of schools.
Professor Strand also found that schools with a high proportion of FSM pupils faced
particular challenges and a greater concentration of poverty was associated with poorer
achievement among non-FSM pupils. However, there was little association between the
proportion of FSM pupils in a school and the academic performance of those FSM
pupils, who tended to achieve similarly low levels regardless of the number of other
disadvantaged students in the school.
The paper says: “Schools do not appear to be the major cause of the FSM gap since
there appears to be an FSM gap in nearly all schools.
“Factors outside the school gates (in the home, wider community or peer groups) are
likely to be more influential.
“For example, children who grow up in poverty may do less well in education because
they have parents who are more stressed, less able to afford educational activities and
resources and less well-placed to help them with their school work.
“This is not to say that schools should not do everything possible to strive to close the
FSM gap, but does indicate that a punitive approach to ‘failing’ schools misconstrues the
nature of the problem.”
Professor Strand added that school accountability measures were not taking into account
these factors properly, and that this could have side-effects for institutions educating
many disadvantaged pupils.
The paper says: “By failing to account for any factors associated with pupil background or
the socio-economic composition of the school, current accountability mechanisms such
as performance [league] tables and Ofsted inspections are biased against schools
serving more disadvantaged intakes.
“These are a disincentive for talented teachers and school leaders to work in more
challenging schools.”
League tables and Ofsted inspections do currently take into account pupils’ starting
points on joining the school. This means they bear in mind the progress pupils make at
the school in a “value-added” system, rather than just the final results they get.
Improving Education through Research
www.bera.ac.uk
However, Professor Strand says the system should go further, taking into account not
just pupils’ starting points, but background factors such as poverty, since the national
data suggest that achieving good progress scores is harder for schools with large
numbers of poorer children, as measured by FSM eligibility, than ones without.
This would mean reinstating an accountability measure known as Contextual Value
Added, introduced under Labour but scrapped in 2010 by the coalition.
“Moderators of the FSM achievement gap: being more able or poor in an affluent school”
is being presented to BERA by Professor Steve Strand of the University of Oxford on
Wednesday, September 24th.
Further information from:
Warwick Mansell
BERA press officer
07813 204245
Email: [email protected]
Notes for editors
1Professor Strand’s Ofsted figures come from Ofsted’s 2013 publication: Unseen
Children: Access and Achievement 20 years on, based on 2012 inspection and exams
data.
2 Separately, Professor Strand calculated the FSM to non-FSM gap in 2013 for all 2,713
mainstream secondary schools in England containing at least five students entitled to
FSM, based on a formula which gives points scores to each pupil’s “best 8” GCSEs and
then adds them up. He found that 2,498 schools, or 92.1 per cent of the total, saw nonFSM pupils outscore their FSM peers by at least six points, or one GCSE grade. In only
48 schools, or 1.8 per cent of the total, was the reverse true, with FSM pupils outscoring
non-FSM by at least six points. The 40th anniversary annual conference of the British
Educational Research Association is being held at the Institute of Education, University of
London from Tuesday, September 23rd to Thursday, September 25th. More than 600
research papers will be presented during the course of the conference. The conference
programme can be accessed via the BERA website: http://www.beraconference.co.uk
About BERA
Improving Education through Research
www.bera.ac.uk
The British Educational Research Association (BERA) is a member-led charity which
exists to encourage educational research and its application for the improvement of
practice and public benefit.
We strive to ensure the best quality evidence from educational research informs policy
makers, practitioners and the general public and contributes to economic prosperity,
cultural understanding, social cohesion and personal flourishing.
Improving Education through Research
www.bera.ac.uk

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