Search

Academic stress among adolescents can undermine academic achievement and harm mental health. Levels of academic stress vary considerably across countries and education systems, but little is known regarding the causes of this variation. In this paper, I develop a theoretical framework positing that stress will be lower in education systems that reduce the stakes attached to academic achievements, temper competition and high aspirations, and weaken the link between achievements and self-worth. I test observable implications of the framework by analysing if stress is influenced by the degree of external differentiation and vocational orientation of education systems, using harmonised survey data on pupils in more than 30 countries. The empirical analyses largely support the implications of the framework: pupils in more differentiated and vocationally orientated systems report significantly lower levels of stress, also in models adjusting for country fixed effects. Moreover, academic achievement is a less important predictor of stress in differentiated or vocational systems, possibly due to lower stakes attached to achievements. I end by proposing further predictions of the framework that can be tested in future research, and by discussing implications of the results with regard to possible trade-offs between different goals of education policy.

This paper investigates the relationship between music qualification choice and academic performance in secondary education in England at Key Stage 4 (KS4; usually at ages 15 and 16). We analysed data from 2257 pupils at 18 educational settings in a city in the southeast of England. Two regression analyses with clustered errors modelled KS4 music qualification choice and GCSE academic achievement in English, Mathematics and other English Baccalaureate subjects, while controlling for a range of demographic, academic and socio-economic variables. Choice of music as a subject at KS4 was positively associated with the total volume of KS4 qualifications entered for examination and was also predicted by coming from an affluent neighbourhood. Furthermore, this choice of music at KS4 was associated with greater academic performance on English Baccalaureate subjects above and beyond other significant predictors (gender, language, prior academic achievement, total volume of KS4 qualifications and neighbourhood socio-economic status; local Cohen's f-squared = 0.09). These results point to moderate but significant additive effect of studying music at KS4 in relation to performance on core GCSE subjects. We also found that schools with KS4 music qualification choice greater than the national average were higher in overall academic attainment, in the proportion of pupils attending extra-curricular instrumental lessons, and in our composite measure of school's engagement with a local music education hub. The results are interpreted in light of sociological theories of education in an attempt to better understand the underlying systemic factors affecting youth music engagement.

This paper explores modes of expectation among care-experienced young people when navigating educational success. Luhmann's theoretical framework is used to conceptualise experiences of educational success and the role of uncertainty. We identify three modes of expectation: trust, risk and danger. To illustrate these modes, we draw on selected examples from an interview study with 28 care-experienced young people focusing on their experiences of support and aftercare while transitioning out of care. The trust mode of expectation is based in a confidence that the future entails a positive outcome--in the case of this study, regarding educational success. This expectation is characterised by the young person's feelings of belonging, underpinned by a safety net of unconditionally supportive caregivers. The risk mode of expectation is characterised by the young person's feeling of being overwhelmed and burdened by the complexity of the educational system in combination with unknown future circumstances when leaving care. The battle against child welfare services to keep supportive measures increases levels of uncertainty. The danger mode of expectation emerges when educational success is disrupted by the interference of child welfare services. The system is seen as unpredictable and powerful, making the young person withdraw from formal support. We conclude that educational success for care-experienced young people is closely linked to their mode of expectation with regard to managing the uncertainty of the future and that their mode is highly dependent on their social, institutional and biographical contexts.

Education is key to the structural integration of immigrants and their children. While research indicates that educational inequalities by migration background are a serious issue, relatively little is known about when, how and why they develop. The current paper adds to the literature by investigating to what extent achievement gaps by migration background develop during the primary school period. Drawing on data from a national longitudinal study of children in Ireland (N = 7577) and using structural equation modelling, it presents a path model of host language achievement. The results indicate that a large part of the disadvantages in English language achievement by migration background during primary school could be attributed to achievement gaps that already existed before school. Moreover, given earlier achievement, the effect of having a migration background was often insignificant or even positive, suggesting that disparities remain relatively stable or even decrease during the period of formal schooling.

The numbers of UK students choosing to study abroad for a period has increased steadily over the years, with many students citing academic, professional, linguistic and cultural reasons as their key motivations. However, while there is an abundance of literature on the advantage of study abroad (SA) for linguistic learning, there is less known about the academic impact of studying abroad. In addition, because SA is largely a process of self-selection, this makes it difficult to derive unbiased estimates of its impact on academic achievement. Using data on students from a London-based Russell Group university, and categorising SA students as those who participated in credit-seeking SA programmes through Erasmus or bilateral/multilateral agreements with partner universities, this paper uses individual fixed effects to compare the post-SA grades for students who sojourned with their expected grades had they not sojourned, as well as with their non-SA counterparts. The results are quite robust across subgroups and indicate that grades in year 3 are less than expected for the SA group, given their pre-sojourn grades. To tackle the problem of self-selection, outcomes for SA students were compared to the group who applied but did not eventually study abroad, and to the outcomes for students who did not apply.

In this paper we investigate the link between the language in which pupils take the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test and the scores they achieve in this assessment, focusing upon the case of Wales. Using five rounds of PISA data and an instrumental variable approach, we show how pupils who took the test in Welsh score around 0.3 standard deviations (30 PISA test points) lower in reading, mathematics and science than their peers who took the test in English. This finding is robust to different model specifications and statistical approaches. We argue that this may indicate that the academic performance of teenagers in Wales may be underestimated in PISA -- particularly amongst those who take this test in Welsh.

Many English Examination Boards will make some use of the differentiated paper method of assessment in the new scheme of 16+ examining, but it is not clear whether problems of comparability have been adequately solved. This article presents an analysis based on well-defined assumptions incorporated into a measurement model and utilising regression. Marks on the paper not taken by a group are estimated from their joint marks on the common paper and the paper specific to their group. The marks are then weighted using the measurement model and combined to produce a rank order over both the groups. In an appendix, the weighting method used is related to the more usual method of weighting adopted when combining scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the effect of recent education policy on assessment practices in English primary schools and how these affect relationships between teachers and pupils in an increasingly market-driven school system. Previous research has focused largely on the effect of markets at a systemic level, but less attention has been paid to how marketisation plays out in teachers' work at classroom level. Similarly, research on assessment has tended to examine teachers' practices in relation to pupils' learning rather than examining it in terms of the role it plays in teachers' professional working lives. This paper brings these ideas together, using the latter as the context for understanding the former. In particular, it focuses on recent policy changes to the way schools in England are evaluated, moving from final attainment to pupils' progress "in-year", and considers their potential for altering the dynamics "within" schools rather than just between them. It draws on a small-scale, interpretive, empirical study involving interviews with primary teachers in England. Data from this study are used to illustrate how tensions can arise for teachers and how internal market competition can be set up between them in which pupils' achievements become a commodity to be made use of, encouraging teachers to consider pupils' achievements as private, rather than public, goods. The paper thus provides a starting point for exploring the effect of market-orientated education policy on teachers' assessment practices at the in-school level and briefly examines some of the implications of this effect.

This paper explores the influence that school sport and non-sport extracurricular activities (ssEC and nsEC) can have on academic achievement. A central thesis of this paper is that, despite the literature on the perceived and presumed benefits of school sport and of non-sport activities, theorising a model of the process by which the benefit is attained, which we conceptualise as a case of transfer, has been neglected. Cognisant of the long-standing literature on transfer and the recent resurgence in transfer research, we present a dual step transfer hypothesis by which ssEC and nsEC activities confer academic achievement benefits. Key to this dual step transfer hypothesis is the influence these activities have on non-cognitive skills, whereby the activity promotes non-cognitive skills (i.e., motivational-social skills), which in turn promote learning and academic achievement. We present an overview of transfer from the early discussions framing transfer to either mental muscle or identical elements mechanisms, to more recent discussions and new perspectives on what counts as transfer. To this discussion we compare research linking academic achievement to school physical education, school sport and school non-sport activities. We place particular emphasis on extracurricular activities and the potential influence they can have on non-cognitive characteristics. In making our argument we weigh up the relative support for dual step transfer within extant literature on both areas, and in doing so return to take a position on the long-standing and divergent framing of transfer in terms of either mental muscle or identical elements mechanisms.

This paper examines the expansion of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and associated growth in the influence of the OECD's education work. PISA has become one of the OECD's most successful "products" and has both strengthened the role of the Directorate for Education within the organization and enhanced the significance of the organization in education globally. We provide an overview of the OECD, including organizational changes in response to globalization and the changing place of the Directorate for Education within the organization, particularly with the development of PISA in the late 1990s. We show how the OECD is expanding PISA by broadening the scope of what is measured; increasing the "scale" of the assessment to cover more countries, systems and schools; and enhancing its "explanatory power" to provide policy-makers with better information. The OECD has also developed the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and PISA-based Tests for Schools, which draw on the PISA template to extend the influence of its education work to new sites. The paper draws on data from 33 interviews with past and present personnel from the OECD, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and the English and Australian education systems, as well as analysis of relevant OECD documents. We argue that PISA, and the OECD's education work more broadly, has facilitated new "epistemological" and "infrastructural" modes of global governance for the OECD in education.

Socio-ethnic stratification and segregation processes present in Flemish society are reflected in the everyday school environment. Pupils with a different socio-ethnic background than the dominant majority and middle class seem to be confronted with a lot of difficulties in this school system. The dominant meritocratic discourse frequently applies a deficit thinking perspective to frame educational success and failure, focusing on deficiencies originating outside of the school. In this paper we analyse newly collected survey data (N = 11,015 pupils) and a large amount of qualitative data (from pupils, parents, teachers, principals) to answer our two main research questions: (i) how is educational success/failure defined, and (ii) how is educational success/failure explained? The factor analyses as well as the qualitative analyses illustrate how the idea of meritocracy relates to individualistic features such as effort, merit and competence. However, the findings also reveal that this individualistic approach goes hand-in-hand with a focus on the family environment and "culture" which seems to limit individual agency to a large extent. In these discourses, pupils, parents and even teachers are presented as being largely determined by their direct social environment with almost no regard for social inequalities within the educational system. The paper ends with a discussion on how processes of victimization and the denial of systemic bias, influence educational trajectories and proposes a different approach to multiculturalism and the appreciation of cultural background and specific family resources as positive elements in these trajectories.

In the context of the international problem of "early school leaving", this paper explores the issue of sustained participation in upper secondary education in England. It focuses in particular on the position of middle attainers, who constitute a large proportion of the cohort and whose progress will be vital in realising the government's goal of "Raising the Participation Age" to 18 by 2015. The paper draws on evidence from national research undertaken as part of the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training in England and Wales and analysis of New Labour and Coalition policy between 2000-2012. It uses a three-year local study of 2400 14- and 16-year-olds in an established school/college consortium to illustrate the effects of policy and practice on middle attainers. We argue that this important group of young people was 'half-served' by New Labour, because of its incomplete and contradictory 14-19 reforms, and is now being "overlooked" by Coalition policy because of its emphasis on high attainers. We conclude by suggesting a range of measures to support the 14+ participation, progression and transition of middle attainers in the English education and training system.

Teacher effectiveness research now informs the rationale of much Australian education policy aimed at redressing student under-achievement. The approach draws a "straight line" between teacher practice and student outcomes, "controlling" for and ultimately dismissive of other possible influences. The paper calls into question this conception of teaching-learning relations, particularly the extent to which teaching practice can be reasonably quantified and improvements in students' academic achievement can be solely attributed to and/or sole responsibility placed on the pedagogic strategies employed by teachers. Drawing on the theoretical resources of Foucault and Bourdieu, the paper argues further that teacher effectiveness research is flawed in both means and ends. It concludes that in its ranking of student and teacher performance, such research actually works against the purposes of education; specifically, authentic teaching and learning.

This paper presents a description of the background characteristics and attainment profile of pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) in England, and of those missing a value for this variable. Free school meal eligibility is a measure of low parental income, widely used in social policy research as an individual indicator of potential disadvantage. It is routinely treated as context for judging both individual and school-level attainment, as an indicator of school composition, and has been proposed as the basis for the pupil premium funding policy for schools. Knowledge of the quality, reach and limitations of FSM as an indicator is therefore fundamental to accurate decision-making in a number of important areas. This paper uses a national dataset of all pupils (PLASC) for 2007. It looks at the relationship between different indicators of pupil background and attainment to help decide how useful FSM remains in relation to its suggested alternatives, and how to handle the crucial question of missing data and to describe more fully than previously the national picture of who is eligible for free school meals. The results show that, while the distinction between take-up and eligibility has been eroded, FSM remains a useful and clear stratifying variable for pupil attainment patterns in school, linked to type of school attended, school mobility, living in care, special needs, first language and minority ethnic group. The pupils missing FSM values fall into two groups, based largely on their type of school and how long they have been there. One group attends fee-paying schools and is most similar to non-FSM pupils elsewhere and could be aggregated with them in future analyses that do not want to omit them. The remaining missing FSM pupils form a deprived and perhaps super-deprived group. These should not be omitted, nor assumed to be like non-FSM pupils, as currently happens in official school performance figures in England in a way that disadvantages schools with very deprived intakes. The proposal here is that missing FSM pupils in state-funded institutions should be treated in future as a third distinct group. If these issues about missing data are resolved, and other limitations accepted, FSM remains a better indicator of low socioeconomic status than the current alternatives discussed in the paper. (Contains 8 tables and 2 figures.)

This paper addresses the question of interaction between home and international students using qualitative data from 100 home students at two "teaching intensive" universities in the southwest of England. Stephan and Stephan's Integrated Threat Theory is used to analyse the data, finding evidence for all four types of threat that they predict when outgroups interact. It is found that home students perceive threats to their academic success and group identity from the presence of international students on the campus and in the classroom. These are linked to anxieties around "mindful" forms of interaction and a taboo around the discussion of difference, leading to a "passive xenophobia" for the majority. The paper concludes that Integrated Threat Theory is a useful tool in critiquing the "internationalisation at home" agenda, making suggestions for policies and practices that may alleviate perceived threats, thereby improving the quality and outcomes of intercultural interaction. (Contains 1 table and 2 notes.)

This paper presents data collected in individual case studies that aimed to investigate children and their families who succeeded against the usual "odds" of disadvantage. Funded as an extension of EPPE 3-11 by the Cabinet Office for the Equalities Review, the study focused particularly closely upon the performance of disadvantaged children from White and minority ethnic groups. The study found that disadvantaged families often have high aspirations for their children and provide significant educational support through "concerted cultivation". The paper discusses the implications for policy and for practice and argues that much of the popular criticism of state policies related to social exclusion fail to acknowledge the need to engage with the policy in action as well as in theory. It is also argued that these policies offer significant and valuable contexts for supporting efforts on the part of families and individuals to achieve success in education "against the odds". (Contains 4 tables and 1 note.)

This paper describes a limited longitudinal study of young children's early numeracy development within three testing cycles, at the mid-point and towards the end of their reception year (at five years-of-age) and again at the mid-point of Year 1 (at six years-of-age), located within the broader context of progress through to Key Stage 1 SAT results (at seven years). Assessment was carried out using the Utrecht Early Mathematical Competence Test (Van Luit et al., 1994). This comprised eight sub-topics, five items in each, including comparison, classification, correspondence, seriation, counting, calculation and real-life number problem solving. Broadly, one set of sub-tests related to understanding of relations in shape, size, quantity and order, whilst a second set of sub-tests related to basic arithmetic. Three hundred pupils were selected from twenty-one schools, large and small, from rural and urban areas, with high and low concentrations of children eligible for free school meals and/or with special educational needs, as well as representing a broad range of achievements levels based on standards assessment tasks. Whilst this paper focuses upon the performance of English pupils, reference is also made to the larger European sample which involved children from Flemish-speaking Belgium, Germany, Greece, Slovenia and the Netherlands. Results showed that children's total scores at around the mid-point of reception year were indeed predictive of later achievement at the end of KS1 though the combined scores over three testing cycles which extended to the mid-point of Year 1, were more so. Discriminant analysis confirmed that a combination of a counting sub-test (one seemed sufficient) and a sub-test focusing on understanding of relations in shape, size, order or quantity (a different one at each testing cycle), together with the general number knowledge sub-test was best predictive of final SAT levels. Comparison with the international data set suggested a different trajectory for English pupils, with more of a bias towards arithmetic sub-tests than their European counterparts who start school later. Moreover, the pattern of dependence of scores on age in which no advantage was found in including any national differences was especially interesting. These findings are discussed within the context of different school start ages and traditions of preparation for formal schooling. Perhaps what emerged most strongly is the need for young English pupils to maintain a broad and balanced early mathematics curriculum, which places appropriate emphasis on practical problem solving. (Contains 8 figures, 15 tables and 1 note.)

Children with special educational needs (SEN) are known to experience lower average educational attainment than other children during their school years. But we have less insight into how far their poorer educational outcomes stem from their original starting points or from failure to progress during school. The extent to which early identification with SEN delivers support that enables children who are struggling academically to make appropriate progress is subject to debate. This is complicated by the fact that children with SEN are more likely to be growing up in disadvantaged families and face greater levels of behavioural and peer problems, factors which themselves impact attainment and progress through school. In this paper, we evaluate the academic progress of children with SEN in England, drawing on a large-scale nationally representative longitudinal UK study, the Millennium Cohort Study, linked to administrative records of pupil attainment. Controlling for key child, family and environmental factors, and using the SEN categories employed at the time of data collection, we first establish that children identified with SEN in 2008, when they were age 7, had been assessed with lower academic competence when they started school. We evaluate their progress between ages 5-7 and 7-11. We found that children identified with SEN at age 7 tended to be those who had made less progress between ages 5 and 7 than their comparable peers. However, children with SEN continued to make less progress than their similarly able peers between ages 7 and 11. Implications are discussed.

Whether someone has ever had free school meal (FSM) eligibility over a six-year period is the measure of socio-economic disadvantage currently used in the English school system. It is used to monitor the socio-economic gap in achievement in the education system, to identify particular children at risk of low achievement and to direct funding to particular children and schools. In this paper we assess how well this measure predicts pupil attainment in secondary school in comparison to other measures of socio-economic background known to influence pupil attainment, such as parental education or income. We ask whether the FSM measure is an adequate proxy for a pupil's socio-economic disadvantage in an educational context. To do this we draw on the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England and matched administrative data. We find that the FSM eligibility measure correlates highly with other measures of socio-economic disadvantage, however it does not identify all children living in what would be deemed deprived households. We then compare the extent to which the FSM eligibility measure predicts educational achievement relative to other measures of deprivation and find that its predictive power is only marginally lower than many richer survey measures. This provides some reassurance on its use in policy.

Since 1992, the UK Government has published so-called "school league tables" summarising the average General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) "attainment" and "progress" made by pupils in each state-funded secondary school in England. While the headline measure of school attainment has remained the percentage of pupils achieving five or more good GCSEs, the headline measure of school progress has changed from "value-added" (2002-2005) to "contextual value-added" (2006-2010) to "expected progress" (2011-2015) to "progress 8" (2016-). This paper charts this evolution with a critical eye. First, we describe the headline measures of school progress. Second, we question the Government's justifications for scrapping contextual value-added. Third, we argue that the current expected progress measure suffers from fundamental design flaws. Fourth, we examine the stability of school rankings across contextual value-added and expected progress. Fifth, we discuss the extent to which progress 8 will address the weaknesses of expected progress. We conclude that all these progress measures and school league tables more generally should be viewed with far more scepticism and interpreted far more cautiously than they have often been to date.

This paper reflects on the importance of 'time spent' in understanding the international student experience. Short‐term mobility programmes (involving stays of between 1 week and 2 months) attracting less privileged students, such as the relatively new Turing Scheme in the United Kingdom, have been hailed as a potential 'solution' to the fact that, traditionally, wealthier individuals have been far more likely to engage in study abroad. However, we do not yet know how short‐term and longer duration programmes compare in terms of the value they confer to students (in relation to their experiences and outcomes). How likely is it that short‐term mobility at undergraduate level is as valuable, according to different measures, as mobility lasting 6 months to several years (as with degree mobility)? This paper reviews some of the evidence to date on shorter duration mobility, addressing how value in international study is constructed and conferred and how this relates to 'time spent'. The paper concludes by arguing that the picture is mixed: although short‐term mobility will be beneficial to students, those engaging in longer term exchanges (usually more privileged students) are likely to derive greater benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The key purpose of educational welfare officers in England is to support students and parents to maximise educational opportunities for young people. However more is known about their role in relation to school attendance than in relation to pupils' educational outcomes. Using the Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England (LSYPE), this paper investigates the characteristics of teenagers who received educational welfare contact because of their behaviour between 2004 and 2006. With observational data it is often difficult to isolate respondents exposed to a particular intervention or "treatment", because of non-random allocation. We address this using inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) to estimate more accurately the effect of educational welfare contact on outcomes of educational achievement and aspiration. Our findings indicate that young people who had educational welfare contact because of their behaviour were less likely to apply to university, less confident in university acceptance if they applied and had lower odds of achieving five General Certificate of Secondary Education at grades A*-C, the government benchmark for education achievement at age 16. We discuss the limitations we face and implications of these findings for future research.

This paper addresses the issue of parental employment and hours of work and their impact on children's educational outcomes at the age of 16. I contribute to existing research by applying more accurate measures of parental time spent outside the household--using direct measures of hours spent at work and commuting, and by examining the independent effect of mothers' and fathers' work involvement, as well as their joint effect. Additionally, I use longitudinal datasets that allow for the examination of the impact of parental hours of work in the preceding year on the child's exam results in the following year. In contrast to previous studies, which focus on the early development of the child, I examine the parental employment while the child is preparing for a final secondary school certificate. My results show that there is a statistically significant and positive association between parental engagement in the labour market and number of final secondary school exams taken by the child. In contrast, I found that children whose parents work very long hours perform worse at the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) level. This result holds even if unobservable family characteristics are taken into account in family-fixed effects' and siblings' estimations.

This paper contributes to the empirical evidence on participation and attainment in higher education by reviewing the patterns of entry and success of undergraduate students. It examines the characteristics of entrants to different subjects and considers the role that subject studied plays in determining the likelihood of graduating with a "good" degree. The data used were drawn from the administrative records of over 38,000 UK-domiciled undergraduate students from one "elite" British university. Despite considerable between-subject variation in degree outcomes, multivariate analysis of the relationship between students' social and academic characteristics and achievement at university revealed that once social background and prior attainment had been controlled for, the subject students studied added little explanatory power to models predicting final degree classifications. Differences in degree outcome were most strongly related to attainment on entry to higher education, sex and ethnicity. In contrast with attainment during the earlier phases of education, the relationship with occupational class was relatively weak. Disparities between the proportion of higher level classifications awarded in different subjects can be largely explained by the background characteristics of the students who choose (and are accepted) to study on these degrees. This finding has particular implications for policies aimed at increasing both the number and quality of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates in what is often argued to be a "shortage" or "priority" area.

By the time children leave primary school there is a large socio-economic gap in their reading proficiency. There are a number of potential explanations for this socio-economic gap and in this paper we investigate the role of three particular genes and gene-environment interactions in determining children's reading skills, using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) dataset. We find that whilst these genes are indeed correlated with reading outcomes, effect sizes are small and sensitive to the choice of test used and the sample selected. Our results suggest that these leading candidate genes can jointly explain just 2% of the socio-economic gap in children's reading test scores. We conclude that the influence of these three genes on children's reading ability is limited, and their role in producing socio-economic gaps in reading ability is even more limited still.

This paper draws on the concept of parental involvement, popular among educators and policy-makers, in investigating differences in level of attained education by family background. The question is if parental involvement in children's schooling at age 14 acts as a mediator between family resources and mid-life level of attained education. Using structural equation modeling we analyze longitudinal survey and register data of a Swedish metropolitan cohort born in 1953 (n = 3300). Several of the commonly used indicators of involvement are investigated, distinguishing between parents' involvement "beliefs", such as educational aspirations and agreement with school curriculum, and involvement "practices", such as reading children's schoolbooks and helping with homework. We find that parents' educational aspirations are an important mediator between family resources and attained level of education, while other involvement forms are related to academic performance only. We also find that parental involvement is greater in families with more resources, which leads us to warn against developments turning more responsibility for children's schooling over to parents. Unless sensitive to the diverse family contexts this might increase the importance of family resources for children's educational outcomes.

This paper will report on the findings from classroom observations and focus group discussions conducted on the topic of popularity and fitting in at school with girls and boys from four government secondary schools in Antigua. The findings show that whilst boys did experience difficulties negotiating academic success and acceptable masculinities, the consensus was that popularity was associated with low achievement for both girls and boys. However, there was evidence that "some" girls were able to work hard and maintain better peer relations than other high achieving students, but that this "balancing" required conformity to hetero-feminine norms as well as the espousal of rigid views about what girls can and can't do. This suggests that real equality is far from being reached.

The growth, internationally, in professional doctorates over the last 25 years has been well documented, as are the forms, fields and disciplines that such doctorates embrace. Yet relatively little is known about the professional tensions teachers encounter, in relation to their positionality, when carrying out doctoral research in the schools where they work. This paper draws attention, not only to the contribution the Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD) makes to research as a whole, but also to the significance of teachers as invaluable members of the research community. Findings will be presented from interviews with 30 senior teachers from schools in England who are carrying out practitioner research as part of their doctoral studies. The paper draws attention to how power relations in the research process ferment the structural and agentic concerns of the participants in this study when discussing their researcher positionality. The scholarly significance of this study is its contribution to knowledge of how schools are increasingly becoming both sites of research and research‐rich environments. With its focus on researcher positionality the paper draws attention not just to the tensions and dilemmas these participants encounter on their doctoral journey, but also to the importance of teacher researchers and their role in research knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive research on attainment grouping, the impact of attainment grouping on pupil attainment remains poorly understood and contested. This paper presents evidence from a study conducted with 2944 12–13 year olds, from 76 schools in England, who were allocated to between‐class attainment groups ('setting') in English and mathematics over the first 2 years of secondary schooling. After controlling for prior attainment, pupils in the top set performed significantly better than pupils in the middle and bottom sets in both English and mathematics. The findings indicate a widening gap in attainment, especially in the case of English. Findings, especially in the case of mathematics, provide more evidence of a relative benefit for pupils placed in top sets than a relative detriment for those in bottom sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports findings from a study commissioned by the (then) Department for Children, Schools and Families. The research mapped the provision, and explored the impact, of supplementary schools and aimed specifically to develop further understanding as to how supplementary schools might raise the attainment of Black and Minority Ethnic pupils. Drawing on a national survey and case study data from 12 supplementary schools, we highlight a range of perceived impacts identified by teachers, pupils and parents and problematise the concept of impact. We identify the unique contribution and impact that supplementary schools make to the mainstream school attainment of pupils from diverse (linguistic, cultural, ethnic) backgrounds. We suggest that there is much to be learnt by the mainstream school sector about the difference supplementary school education makes to minority ethnic children, while questioning whether mainstream indicators of impact should be applied to supplementary schools.

This paper proposes a theoretical model to explain trainee withdrawal and persistence within higher education (HE) based initial teacher training (ITT). Within ITT, attrition and persistence are under-researched and under-theorised, thus providing the rationale for this study. Within HE more broadly, a number of models have been proposed, most notably the seminal work of Tinto. However Tinto's Longitudinal Model of Departure was postulated for undergraduate academic courses, and has weaknesses in the study of trainees on professional courses, such as ITT. The proposed theoretical model is informed by interview and questionnaire evidence from a new case study of withdrawal and persistence in primary HE-based ITT. In this study, withdrawal and persistence were affected by factors across a range of domains: intra-personal, inter-personal, academic, professional, institutional and external. Tinto's model is evaluated against the empirical findings of the case study, allowing the proposal of a revised model which more effectively explains persistence and attrition in ITT. (Contains 3 tables and 4 figures.)

This paper reports an analysis of the educational attainment and progress between age 11 and age 14 of over 14,500 students from the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Young People in England. The mean attainment gap in national tests at age 14 between White British and several ethnic minority groups was large, more than three times the size of the gender gap, but at the same time only about one-third of the size of the social class gap. Socioeconomic variables could account for the attainment gaps for Black African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students, but not for Black Caribbean students. Further controls for parental and student attitudes, expectations and behaviours indicated minority ethnic groups were on average more advantaged on these measures than White British students, but this was not reflected proportionately in their levels of attainment. Black Caribbean students were distinctive as the only group making less "progress" than White British students between age 11 and 14 and this could not be accounted for by any of the measured contextual variables. Possible explanations for the White British-Black Caribbean gap are considered. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

This paper considers enjoyment of formal education for young people aged 14 to 16, largely from their own perspective, based on the view of around 3000 students in England. The data include documentary analysis, official statistics, interviews and surveys with staff and students. Enjoyment of school tends to be promoted by factors such as successful social relationships, small classes, variation in learning and students having some control of their learning. Enjoyment tends to be inhibited by perceived lack of respect or concern by teaching staff and passive pedagogy. For some disengaged students, a work or college environment with more adult relationships appears to restore enjoyment and enthusiasm. Enjoyment, unlike attainment, for example, is not particularly stratified by the standard student background variables. Nor is there evidence of a clear school effect. This means that enjoyment should be easy to enhance more widely, positively affecting the learner identities of all young people, including the more reluctant learners. (Contains 4 tables.)

This paper reports the results of a meta-analysis in which the dynamic model of educational effectiveness is used as a framework to search for school factors associated with student achievement. The methods and results of a synthesis of 67 studies are presented. Findings reveal that effective schools are able to develop policies and take actions in order to improve their teaching practice and learning environment. Factors excluded from the dynamic model were found to be only weakly associated with outcomes. Implications for research on school effectiveness and for improvement of practice are drawn. It is illustrated that this approach of conducting meta-analysis helps us interpret the findings by providing support to the validity of the dynamic model and suggestions for its further development. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

The performance of departments has been largely neglected in previous studies of subject choice in secondary schools. This is a significant omission because analysis at departmental level enables a fuller assessment of the effects of competition and specialisation on pupil performance. This paper examines relationships between both absolute and value-added measures of departmental performance and the likelihood of students being entered for examination in a subject. It examines these relationships with reference to four option subjects: French, German, Geography and History. It utilises data from an Economic and Social Research Council-funded study which examined trends and patterns in departmental effectiveness using a sample of 664 schools which participated in the Yellis monitoring system for a minimum of five years during the period 1995-2002. (Contains 6 tables and 2 notes.)

The article discuses critical engagement with educational ideas, or at least with ideas influencing prominent debates about education. Topics include the history of certain relevant traditions of educational research; root and branch analysis of the research process of the CtP project, and framework for thinking more productively about the future of educational knowledge production in the context of a tradition of educational practice.

Factor analysis of a number of Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) examinations showed that tests of practical biology loaded significantly on the same factor as biology theory papers. When a fictitious correlation matrix was factored it was necessary for the correlation between tests of practical and theoretical biology to fall to about 0.17 before the two separate tests of biological ability appeared as distinct constructs, it is concluded that the examinations studied were not adequately distinguishing practical biology from theoretical biology. All assessments appeared to be testing a general factor which might be related either to general ability, or to a specific biological ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a unified conceptual framework for understanding refugee identity construction within educational contexts, drawing on theories of social justice (Fraser, 2008), affective relations (Lynch, 2012), the resumption of ordinary life (Kohli, 2011) and ecological systems (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). Addressing a gap in the existing scholarship, the model emphasises the importance of affective relations in shaping refugee identities in education alongside other factors. The study examines the macro constructs of redistribution, recognition, representation and relational affect, highlighting their impact on refugee children's educational experiences. Further, it considers the micro constructs of safety, sense of belonging and success in integration and attainment in educational environments. The constructs are examined across various levels of Bronfenbrenner's ecological system, demonstrating the complexity of refugees' needs. This model aims to facilitate a holistic, justice‐oriented approach to refugee education, which is crucial given the rise in global displacement. The study has significant implications for refugee education research and policymaking, potentially informing targeted interventions and programmes that foster academic success, overall well‐being, and practice in refugee education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School absences can negatively impact a child's schooling, including the loss of teacher‐led lessons, peer interactions, and, ultimately, academic achievement. However, little is known about the long‐term consequences of school absences for overall educational attainment and labour market outcomes. In this paper, we used data from the 1970 British Cohort Study to examine long‐term associations between school absences in late childhood and individuals' educational attainment, social class, unemployment and earnings at age 42 while adjusting for a comprehensive set of confounders. Our findings show that school absences are associated with lower educational attainment but are not associated with social class destination except for increasing the likelihood of being out of the labour force after adjusting for confounders. Individuals who missed five days of school at age 10 were 5.2% more likely to have obtained no qualifications and 4.1% more likely to be out of the labour force. However, we did not find a significant association between school absences and individuals' earnings or duration of unemployment. Our findings suggest that the detrimental consequences of school absences persist beyond schooling into adulthood. Overall, this study highlights the importance of addressing school absenteeism to promote educational and labour market participation over the life course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic stress among adolescents can undermine academic achievement and harm mental health. Levels of academic stress vary considerably across countries and education systems, but little is known regarding the causes of this variation. In this paper, I develop a theoretical framework positing that stress will be lower in education systems that reduce the stakes attached to academic achievements, temper competition and high aspirations, and weaken the link between achievements and self‐worth. I test observable implications of the framework by analysing if stress is influenced by the degree of external differentiation and vocational orientation of education systems, using harmonised survey data on pupils in more than 30 countries. The empirical analyses largely support the implications of the framework: pupils in more differentiated and vocationally orientated systems report significantly lower levels of stress, also in models adjusting for country fixed effects. Moreover, academic achievement is a less important predictor of stress in differentiated or vocational systems, possibly due to lower stakes attached to achievements. I end by proposing further predictions of the framework that can be tested in future research, and by discussing implications of the results with regard to possible trade‐offs between different goals of education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The percentage of care‐experienced young people in England progressing to university by the age of 19 currently stands at around 12–13% with a further 10% of care‐experienced adults attending university during their 20s and 30s. This figure remains lower than both the general population and other groups of disadvantaged learners. It is well established that the educational attainment of care‐experienced young people can be impacted by a range of barriers to learning. Existing research often focuses on the importance of key adults and their role in supporting young people in care. A small number of studies examine the reflexive capacities of the young people themselves through the lens of sociologist Margaret Archer's model of modes of reflexivity and internal conversations. Archer's theory can be utilised to understand how care‐experienced young people navigate their circumstances. The notion of the internal conversation offers a way to understand how some young people growing up in care develop more stable modes of reflexivity, namely autonomous, communicative or meta‐reflexive. Here we contribute to new knowledge by considering care‐experienced young people who develop communicative and autonomous aspects to their day‐to‐day life functioning. This paper draws on findings and analysis from interviews conducted as part of the first author's PhD (2020) which considered the reflexive capacities of care‐experienced young people who self‐identified as higher achievers. We utilise Archer's modes of reflexivity to explore participants' internal conversations and to develop our understanding of the relationships, experiences and personal skills that underpin successful educational journeys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large‐scale international achievement studies such as PISA have been widely used to study how educational inequality compares across countries. Yet the various different biases that may affect these estimates are often not considered or are poorly understood. In this paper we draw upon the total survey error framework to provide a case study of the potential biases affecting estimates of the socio‐economic achievement gaps using PISA data from Germany. The results illustrate how procedural and measurement errors have a substantial impact upon estimates of socio‐economic achievement gradients in Germany, including how it compares with other countries. This leads us to conclude that estimates of socio‐economic achievement gaps using the PISA data for Germany do not seem to be particularly robust. More generally, we argue that better articulation and reporting of such challenges with comparing socio‐economic achievement gaps using large‐scale international assessment data such as PISA are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between music qualification choice and academic performance in secondary education in England at Key Stage 4 (KS4; usually at ages 15 and 16). We analysed data from 2257 pupils at 18 educational settings in a city in the southeast of England. Two regression analyses with clustered errors modelled KS4 music qualification choice and GCSE academic achievement in English, Mathematics and other English Baccalaureate subjects, while controlling for a range of demographic, academic and socio‐economic variables. Choice of music as a subject at KS4 was positively associated with the total volume of KS4 qualifications entered for examination and was also predicted by coming from an affluent neighbourhood. Furthermore, this choice of music at KS4 was associated with greater academic performance on English Baccalaureate subjects above and beyond other significant predictors (gender, language, prior academic achievement, total volume of KS4 qualifications and neighbourhood socio‐economic status; local Cohen's f‐squared = 0.09). These results point to moderate but significant additive effect of studying music at KS4 in relation to performance on core GCSE subjects. We also found that schools with KS4 music qualification choice greater than the national average were higher in overall academic attainment, in the proportion of pupils attending extra‐curricular instrumental lessons, and in our composite measure of school's engagement with a local music education hub. The results are interpreted in light of sociological theories of education in an attempt to better understand the underlying systemic factors affecting youth music engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a secondary analysis of official statistics, this paper examines the changing scale of the inequality of achievement between White students and their Black British peers who identify their family heritage as Black Caribbean. We examine a 25-year period from the introduction of the General Certificate of Secondary Education ( GCSE), in 1988, to the 20th anniversary of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 2013. It is the first time that the Black/White gap has been analysed over such a long period. The paper reviews the changing place of the Black/White gap in education debates and notes that, despite periods when race equality has appeared to be high on the political agenda, it has never held a consistent place at the heart of policy. Our findings shed light on how the Black/White gap is directly affected, often in negative ways, by changes in education policy. Specifically, whenever the key benchmark for achievement has been redefined, it has had the effect of restoring historic levels of race inequity; in essence, policy interventions to 'raise the bar' by toughening the benchmark have actively widened gaps and served to maintain Black disadvantage. Throughout the entire 25-year period, White students were always at least one and a half times more likely to attain the dominant benchmark than their Black peers. Our findings highlight the need for a sustained and explicit focus on race inequity in education policy. To date, the negative impacts of policy changes have been much more certain and predictable than occasional attempts to reduce race inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The numbers of UK students choosing to study abroad for a period has increased steadily over the years, with many students citing academic, professional, linguistic and cultural reasons as their key motivations. However, while there is an abundance of literature on the advantage of study abroad (SA) for linguistic learning, there is less known about the academic impact of studying abroad. In addition, because SA is largely a process of self‐selection, this makes it difficult to derive unbiased estimates of its impact on academic achievement. Using data on students from a London‐based Russell Group university, and categorising SA students as those who participated in credit‐seeking SA programmes through Erasmus or bilateral/multilateral agreements with partner universities, this paper uses individual fixed effects to compare the post‐SA grades for students who sojourned with their expected grades had they not sojourned, as well as with their non‐SA counterparts. The results are quite robust across subgroups and indicate that grades in year 3 are less than expected for the SA group, given their pre‐sojourn grades. To tackle the problem of self‐selection, outcomes for SA students were compared to the group who applied but did not eventually study abroad, and to the outcomes for students who did not apply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate the link between the language in which pupils take the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test and the scores they achieve in this assessment, focusing upon the case of Wales. Using five rounds of PISA data and an instrumental variable approach, we show how pupils who took the test in Welsh score around 0.3 standard deviations (30 PISA test points) lower in reading, mathematics and science than their peers who took the test in English. This finding is robust to different model specifications and statistical approaches. We argue that this may indicate that the academic performance of teenagers in Wales may be underestimated in PISA – particularly amongst those who take this test in Welsh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the influence that school sport and non-sport extracurricular activities (ss EC and ns EC) can have on academic achievement. A central thesis of this paper is that, despite the literature on the perceived and presumed benefits of school sport and of non-sport activities, theorising a model of the process by which the benefit is attained, which we conceptualise as a case of transfer, has been neglected. Cognisant of the long-standing literature on transfer and the recent resurgence in transfer research, we present a dual step transfer hypothesis by which ss EC and ns EC activities confer academic achievement benefits. Key to this dual step transfer hypothesis is the influence these activities have on non-cognitive skills, whereby the activity promotes non-cognitive skills (i.e., motivational-social skills), which in turn promote learning and academic achievement. We present an overview of transfer from the early discussions framing transfer to either mental muscle or identical elements mechanisms, to more recent discussions and new perspectives on what counts as transfer. To this discussion we compare research linking academic achievement to school physical education, school sport and school non-sport activities. We place particular emphasis on extracurricular activities and the potential influence they can have on non-cognitive characteristics. In making our argument we weigh up the relative support for dual step transfer within extant literature on both areas, and in doing so return to take a position on the long-standing and divergent framing of transfer in terms of either mental muscle or identical elements mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advantages and disadvantages of single‐sex schooling continue to be a source of policy and public debate. Previous empirical evidence is somewhat ambiguous, with some studies finding a positive impact of single‐sex schooling on education achievement and others finding no differences across school types. The relationship between single‐sex schooling on academic outcomes is typically problematic to examine, as in most countries single‐sex schools are selective and the numbers attending them are relatively small. In Ireland, a high proportion of secondary school children (~1/3) attend a single‐sex school. In addition, these schools are largely state‐funded and non‐selective but differing in composition compared to mixed‐sex schools. For this reason, the Irish educational system provides an interesting setting for exploring the outcomes of single‐sex schooling. In this context, this study utilises the 2018 PISA data for Ireland to examine the relationship between single‐sex education and mathematics, reading and science literacy performance for boys and girls, respectively, as well as differences across gender in these outcomes. We find significant raw gaps in reading, science and mathematics scores between females in single‐sex and mixed‐sex schools and in mathematics scores for males across the same school types. However, after controlling for a rich set of individual, parental and school‐level factors we find that, on average, there is no significant difference in performance for girls or boys who attend single‐sex schools compared to their mixed‐school peers in science, mathematics or reading. In terms of heterogeneous analysis, this finding is consistent across the performance distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher effectiveness research now informs the rationale of much Australian education policy aimed at redressing student under-achievement. The approach draws a 'straight line' between teacher practice and student outcomes, 'controlling' for and ultimately dismissive of other possible influences. The paper calls into question this conception of teaching-learning relations, particularly the extent to which teaching practice can be reasonably quantified and improvements in students' academic achievement can be solely attributed to and/or sole responsibility placed on the pedagogic strategies employed by teachers. Drawing on the theoretical resources of Foucault and Bourdieu, the paper argues further that teacher effectiveness research is flawed in both means and ends. It concludes that in its ranking of student and teacher performance, such research actually works against the purposes of education; specifically, authentic teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]