Differential Achievements Education Britain - Sociology 1.Class

Differential achievements education Britain - Sociology 1.Class - Trends achievement (Statistics). 2/3 factors affecting achievement - e.g. social class, neo-liberalism 2. Gender -Trends achievement (Statistics) .

Class trends in achievement: Prejudice and culture

According to the British Educational Research Association: "Some 31% of white pupils on free school meals -- a key indicator of poverty -- achieve five As to Cs, compared with 63% of white pupils not eligible for free school meals" (Shepherd 2010). However "this gap between social classes -- of 32 percentage points -- is far higher for white pupils than for other ethnic groups" (Shepherd 2010). Statistics thus suggest that while class prejudice may have an impact upon student test scores, a culture in some white, working-class homes that does not support education must also be taken into consideration as a factor, given that the effects of poverty are not nearly as obvious as they are for minority students.

Q2. Gender trends in achievement: Developmental and disciplinary problems amongst boys

During students' early educations, "there is little difference in the performance of boys and girls in mathematics, but in reading, writing and spelling at Key Stage 1, girls do substantially better. The difference in the number of girls and boys reaching Level 2 is about 10 percentage points, and this gap shows no signs of narrowing. It indicates that the underachievement of boys in literacy begins in the first few years of their education, and eventually this leads to many boys transferring to secondary schools with weak literacy skills that are often insufficient to cope with the demands of the secondary curriculum (Ofsted 1994 -- 1998)" (Shelton n.d. 3). This translates into fewer boys going on to university. The emphasis upon literacy vs. other tasks in the classroom, boy's slower rates of developing in terms of their communication skills, and displinary problems in classroom where boys have more difficulty playing by 'the rules' have all been cited as the reason for the gap.

Q3. Ethnicity trends in achievement: Institutional racism and expulsion

Traditionally, ethnic minorities have underperformed in comparison to their white counterparts in Britain. However, this is rapidly changing. While "the proportion of African-Caribbean students achieving 5 good GCSE grades is well below the national average. Yet in Birmingham…African-Caribbean pupils were doing better than the average" (Baker 2002). Overall "the proportion of African-Caribbean pupils getting 5 good GCSEs jumped from 23% to 37% between 1996 and 2000" (Baker 2002). This has been attributed to the high concentration of African-Caribbean pupils in the area of Birmingham, resulting in more positive student interactions with teachers.

In general, negative student-teacher relationships have been cited as a critical reason for minority underperforming "in 2000/01, 38 in every 10,000 Black Caribbean pupils in England were permanently excluded. This was the highest rate for any ethnic minority group…As with academic achievement, African Caribbean pupils are starting to close the gap as the numbers being excluded have fallen from a high of 60 per 10,000 in 1998/99" (Baker 2002).

Q4. Explain what is meant by meritocracy

A meritocracy is a society where one's merit, rather than one's status at birth or inherent attributes (such as gender, class, race, ethnicity, religion, or disability status) determines one's success.

Q5. Identify and explain THREE policies that the government have introduced to overcome children's deprivation. E.g. Labour helping families out of poverty by introducing free nursery places for 3- to 4-year-olds.

Three measures include: a recent tax credit to support childcare for low-wage workers (Jowitt 2013); the Sure Start programme which "supports parents in the poorest communities and tries to intervene to overcome the disadvantages their babies experience from birth" by "aiming to improve parenting skills, give mothers more support and get small children fully immunized and into nursery schools" (Bosely 2008); and increasing the availability of food banks for needy families of a wider range of incomes (Bennett 2013).

Q6. Identify TWO policies or reforms which aimed at raising educational achievement and briefly explain how each was meant to do so.