Boys underachievement: Contextualising gaps in educational attainment DCSF Gender Agenda Conference

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Boys underachievement Contextualising gaps in
educational attainmentDCSF Gender Agenda
ConferenceGreat Hall, Kings College, 28th
November 2008Dr. Steve StrandAssociate
ProfessorUniversity of Warwicksteve.strand_at_warwi
ck.ac.uk024 7652 2197
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Aims of this session

• What are the attainment gaps at age 16 by gender,
  ethnicity and social class, how do they compare?
• What are the interactions (if any) between these
  factors?
• Do gaps change (widen or narrow) as pupils
  progress through secondary school?
• Can we account for the gaps through control for a
  range of pupil, family, school neighbourhood
  contextual factors?
• Consider implications for policy.

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Longitudinal Study of Young People in England
(LSYPE)

• Large scale, DCSF funded
• 15,770 Y9 pupils (aged 14) in 2004
• Over sampled the six major ethnic minorities
  (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean,
  Black African Mixed heritage)
• 647 secondary schools, includes independent
  sector PRUs
• Detailed in-depth data
• Extended face to face interview with Young
  Person, 45 min main parent interview, 10 min
  second parent interview, links to ASC NPD (KS2,
  KS3, GCSE/GNVQ) .
• Longitudinal tracking
• Subsequent interviews at Wave 2 in 2005 Wave 3
  in 2006, further follow up planned through until
  age 25 (2015).
• Aims
• to better understand the factors influencing
  attainment and progress during secondary school.

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Gender gap

• -0.22 SD 36 points (e.g. converting 6 grade
  D to 6 grade C) BUT gap is subject specific
  (e.g. -0.31 for English but only -0.07 for maths
  and science)

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Ethnic gaps
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Ethnic gaps
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Socio-Economic Classification (SEC) gap

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Socio-Economic Classification (SEC) gap
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Summary attainment gaps at age 16
In inverse rank to the extent of press and media
attention
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Interaction effects

• There are significant interactions, the effect
  of ethnicity is not the same for all levels of
  social class, the effect of gender is not the
  same for all ethnic groups.
• Three main results
• Effect of class is strongest for White British
  pupils
• The lowest attaining groups are both Black
  Caribbean boys and White British boys from low
  SEC
• Black Caribbean pupils in medium and high SES
  homes, and particularly boys, are underachieving
  relative to White British pupils

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KS4 points score by ethnicity, class gender
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White British working class

• Full range of socio-economic variables
• SEC of the home
• Maternal education (highest qualification)
• Family poverty (Entitlement to FSM)
• Rented accommodation
• Single parent households
• Neighbourhood disadvantage (IDACI)
• White British are the lowest attaining group
  whatever the SES dimension, additional variables
  accentuate the White working class effect even
  further

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Mothers educational qualifications and IDACI by
ethnicity
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The challenge nuanced interpretations

• Class why are most ethnic minorities more
  resilient to social disadvantage? Equally why do
  Black Caribbean and Black African (particularly
  boys) from high SES homes underachieve?
• Ethnicity why no difference between White
  British and Black Caribbean pupils from low SEC
  homes? Why do Black African pupils achieve so
  much better than Black Caribbean pupils?
• Gender why is the gender gap in attainment so
  much larger for Black Caribbean and Bangladeshi
  pupils than for White British pupils?

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Progress during secondary school

• The gender gap is relatively small, but it
  increases across secondary school (from -0.07 to
  -0.22 SD)
• The overall social class and ethnic gaps remain
  stable, but there is a substantial interaction
• White British working class pupils (both boys and
  girls) show a relative decline, particularly from
  low SEC homes
• Most minority ethnic groups make strong progress,
  particularly in the last two years of secondary
  school.

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High social class - Key Stages 2-4
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Low social class - Key Stages 2-4
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Accounting for the gaps

• Demographics are package variables what are
  the causal mechanisms?
• Many variables had a significant association with
  attainment in multiple regression models
  maternal education, parental resources,
  monitoring, family discord, family structure,
  truancy, SEN, attitudes, school type and FSM,
  neighbourhood deprivation etc
• The largest influences were
• Pupils educational aspirations and parents
  educational aspirations for their child
• Pupils academic self concept
• Frequency of completing homework.

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Educational aspirations
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Aspirations, ASC and motivation

• Key findings
• Little social class effect for Asian Black
  African groups, or Black Caribbean girls,
  aspirations uniformly high
• No gender differences, except for White British
  Black Caribbean pupils
• White British Black Caribbean working class
  boys have the lowest aspirations
• Similar pattern of results for Academic
  Self-Concept (ASC) and for frequency of
  completing homework (indicator of effort
  motivation)

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Ethnicity, class and gender - Summary

• In low SEC homes all minority ethnic groups make
  strong progress during KS4, and have caught up
  (Black Caribbean) or exceeded (all other groups)
  the attainment of White British pupils by age 16.
  Key resilience factors are high educational
  aspirations (both pupils parents), strong
  academic self concept and strong commitment
  (homework).
• In high SEC homes ethnic differentials remain
  strong, with Indian, Pakistani Bangladeshi
  pupils outperforming White British (when social
  disadvantage is included in models). Again
  aspirations, ASC and homework can account for
  this. However Black Caribbean and Black African
  boys underachieve relative to their high
  aspirations, high ASC and comparable homework to
  White British peers.

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Gender - Conclusions

• Gender differences in attainment at age 16 are
  small relative to social class and ethnic gaps
• Need to pay greater attention to the
  intersections of class, ethnicity and gender
• Care not to over-generalise to the individual
• Are some regularities between gender and
  attainment, in particular
• Boys writing at primary school
• Growing disaffection during secondary school

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Conclusions (Continued)

• Boys writing at primary school
• Handwriting under-emphasised as a language act?
  Substantial gender difference in automaticity
  in handwriting (ES0.50) strong correlation with
  writing composition (Y2 and Y6), even after
  control for reading maths scores
• hypothesise for a sig. proportion of boys
  handwriting is not automatic and competes for
  working memory with higher-level skills of idea
  generation, vocabulary selection, spelling,
  revising text against plans etc (Medwell, Strand
  Wray, 2007)
• Growing disaffection at secondary school
• Gender gap grows as pupils progress 11-16 Low
  aspirations, poor ASC and effort disaffection
  (particularly working class White British and
  Black Caribbean boys)
• Issues of school quality, curriculum and teacher
  expectations

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• References
• Strand, S. (2007). Minority ethnic pupils in the
  Longitudinal Study of Young People in England.
  DfES Research Report RR-002. London Department
  for Children, Families and Schools.
  http//www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/D
  CSF-RR002.pdf
• Strand, S. (2008). Minority ethnic pupils in the
  Longitudinal Study of Young People in England
  Extension report on performance in public
  examinations at age 16. DCSF Research Report
  RR-029. London Department for Children, Schools
  and Families. http//www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data
  /uploadfiles/DCSF-RR029.pdf

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APPENDIX 1 Ethnic groupgenderclass