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This article focuses on the experiences of 7-8 year old working-class girls in Belfast, Northern Ireland and their attitudes towards education. It shows how their emerging identities tend to emphasize relationships, marriage and motherhood at the expense of a concern with education and future careers. The article suggests that one important factor that can help explain this is the influence of the local neighbourhood. In drawing upon Bourdieu's concepts of symbolic violence and habitus and Elias' notion of figuration, the article shows how the local neighbourhood represents the parameters of the girls' social worlds. It provides the context within which the girls tend to focus on social relations within their community and particularly on family relationships, marriage and children. It also provides the context within which the girls tend to develop strong interdependent relationships with their mothers that also tend to encourage and reinforce the girls' particular gendered identities. The article concludes by arguing that there is a need for more research on working-class girls and education to look beyond the school to incorporate, more fully, an understanding of the influence of the family and local neighbourhood on their attitudes towards education and their future career aspirations.

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]

Background: The use of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in education has increased significantly over the last 15 years. However, their use has also been subject to sustained and rather trenchant criticism from significant sections of the education research community. Key criticisms have included the claims that: it is not possible to undertake RCTs in education; RCTs are blunt research designs that ignore context and experience; RCTs tend to generate simplistic universal laws of ‘cause and effect’; and that they are inherently descriptive and contribute little to theory. Purpose: This article seeks to assess the above four criticisms of RCTs by considering the actual evidence in relation to the use of RCTs in education in practice. Design and methods: The article is based upon a systematic review that has sought to identify and describe all RCTs conducted in educational settings and including a focus on educational outcomes between 1980 and 2016. The search is limited to articles and reports published in English. Results: The systematic review found a total of 1017 unique RCTs that have been completed and reported between 1980 and 2016. Just over three quarters of these have been produced over the last 10 years, reflecting the significant increase in the use of RCTs in recent years. Overall, just over half of all RCTs identified were conducted in North America and a little under a third in Europe. The RCTs cover a wide range of educational settings and focus on an equally wide range of educational interventions and outcomes. The findings not only disprove the claim that it is not possible to do RCTs in education but also provide some supporting evidence to challenge the other three key criticisms outlined earlier. Conclusions: While providing evidence to counter the four criticisms outlined earlier, the article suggests that there remains significant progress to be made. The article concludes by outlining some key challenges for researchers undertaking RCTs in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tutoring is commonly employed to prevent early reading failure, and evidence suggests that it can have a positive effect. This article presents findings from a large-scale (n = 734) randomized controlled trial evaluation of the effect of Time to Read—a volunteer tutoring program aimed at children aged 8 to 9 years—on reading comprehension, self-esteem, locus of control, enjoyment of learning, and future aspirations. The study found that the program had only a relatively small effect on children’s aspirations (effect size +0.17, 95% confidence interval [0.015, 0.328]) and no other outcomes. It is suggested that this lack of evidence found may be due to misspecification of the program logic model and outcomes identified and program-related factors, particularly the low dosage of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent years the findings of a number of quantitative research studies have been published in the UK on gender and achievement. Much of this work has emanated from Stephen Gorard and his colleagues and has not only been highly critical of existing approaches to handling quantitative data but has also suggested a number of alternative and, what they claim to be, more valid ways of measuring differential patterns of achievement and underachievement between groups. This article shows how much of this work has been based upon rather under-developed measures of achievement and underachievement that tend, in turn, to generate a number of misleading findings that have questionable implications for practice. It will be argued that this body of work provides a useful case study in the problems of quantitative research that fails to engage adequately with the substantive theoretical and empirical literature and considers some of the implications of this for future research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents Paul Connolly's response to commentary by Stephen Gorard concerning the author's research. The author identifies a number of areas in which he argues that Gorard created "red herring" arguments. The author discusses his desire to encourage debate in the area of educational inequalities. The author has written on the idea of using phi as a way to analyze educational inequalities. The author discusses the importance of evaluating the gaps in achievement among students over time. The article also examines disparities between boys and girls in academic achievement.

This article draws upon data from an in-depth ethnographic study of 5 and 6 year old children in an English multi-ethnic, inner-city primary school. It focuses on the significance of 'race' within young girls' peer-group relations and the ways in which the social dynamics that underlie those relations provide the context for understanding the particular nature and form that racism takes among the girls. This is done through a focus on the experiences of South Asian girls within the group. Within this, the article has two main aims. First, it aims to contribute to the literature within the sociology of education by extending the existing research focus on racism within teacher/pupil interactions to include an understanding of racism as it manifests itself among the children's peer-group relations. Second, in adapting and applying Pierre Boudieu's concepts of capital and field, the article also offers a contribution to the literature within the sociology of 'race' and ethnicity by suggesting one potentially fruitful way in which racism can be understood within specific social contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is now widely accepted that reporting the results of randomised controlled trials should encompass a complimentary focus on both outcome measures and process measures. Reflective of the current thinking, this article reports on the findings from a qualitative evaluation that accompanied a randomised controlled trial of the Letterbox Club; a book gifting intervention for children in foster care. Outcome measures used in the trial have recently been reported on (Mooney, Winter, & Connolly, 2016). Findings showed no significant effects in terms of improvements to children's literacy skills and/or enjoyment of reading. Through in-depth interviews with 20 foster children, their carers and the programme developer, the qualitative evaluation focused on how and why the intervention did not achieve greater impact. Findings illustrate differences between the ‘hoped for’ outcomes of the intervention, and carer/child levels of engagement with and experiences of the programme. In order to move the programme forward and begin to explore the findings, a logic model is suggested which accounts for the current findings regarding the use and lived experiences which carers had with the packs. Wider implications for the conduct of these types of randomised controlled trials are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poor educational outcomes of children in care are a significant concern internationally. Whilst there have been many interventions developed to address this problem, very few of these have been rigorously evaluated. This article presents the findings of a randomised controlled trial that sought to measure the effectiveness of a book gifting programme (the Letterbox Club) that aims to improve literacy skills amongst children aged 7–11 years in foster care. The programme involves children receiving six parcels of books sent through the post over a six-month period. The trial, which ran between April 2013 and June 2014, involved a sample of 116 children in Northern Ireland (56 randomly allocated to the intervention group and 60 to a waiting list control group). Outcome measures focused on reading skills (reading accuracy, comprehension and rate) and attitudes to reading and school. The trial found no evidence that the book-gifting programme had any effect on any of the outcomes measured. Drawing upon some of the emergent themes from the accompanying qualitative process evaluation that sought to determine foster carer/child attitude towards and engagement with the parcels, it is suggested that one plausible reason for the ineffectiveness of the Letterbox Club, as intimated by carers and children (rather than explicitly explored with them), is the lack of support provided to the carers/children in relation to the packs received. Reflective of an ecological model of children's development, it is recommended that for book-gifting programmes to be effective they need to include a focus on encouraging the direct involvement of foster carers in shared literacy activities with the children using the books that are gifted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] The article presents the results of a RCT of a literacy after-school programme. [•] Results show significant improvements in the children's literacy. [•] Improvements in the children's concentration and behaviour in class was also found. [•] The implications for the development of after-school programmes are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]