More selection in schools means less equal outcomes, research finds
For immediate release: 24 June 2011
School systems that select by ability and make extensive use of ability grouping within schools end up with more unequal educational outcomes than non-selective systems with mixed ability classes.
This is a key finding of a synthesis of research on schooling and social equality carried out by academics at the Institute of Education, London. This new report follows evidence from the IOE’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies published this month that streaming in UK schools is on the increase.
It finds that the UK is “notable” for the degree to which pupils’ social class influences their school’s academic performance. Across all OECD countries on average 57% of the performance difference between schools can be attributed to the social characteristics of the intake. However, in the UKthis figure rises to 70%.
In, “Education, Opportunity and Social Cohesion”, Professor Andy Green and his colleagues from Llakes, the Economic and Social Research Council-funded Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies, draw on their new research to highlight the role that education systems play in promoting – or undermining – social cohesion and equality across OECD countries.
The report is being launched at the Institute of Education on Tuesday, June 28.
The 2009 PISA study of literacy skills among 15 year olds – examined by the researchers — shows that educational outcomes in the UK are more unequal than in most OECD countries. The gap between the top and bottom 10% was the 11th highest of the 34 countries.
Inequality in education leads to an uneven distribution of skills in the adult population. “Our research suggests that it is not so much the average level of education in a country which maters most for social cohesion, but rather how the skills acquired are spread around,” says Professor Green.
“The more unequal the skills distribution among adults, the higher the rates of violent crime and civic unrest, and the lower the levels of social trust and civil liberties.”
The new report also says that students who spend longer in mixed-ability classes are “more likely to share basic values in areas such as tolerance and patriotism, regardless of their social or ethnic group.” When compared with comprehensive systems, selective education systems have more social segregation across classrooms and greater disparities in pupils’ civic knowledge and skills.
THE REPORT: SocialCohesion_webversion
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Editors’ notes
To speak to Andy Green, please contact him on 07941 828364 or andy.green@ioe.ac.uk Germ Janmaat is on 07984 716974 or g.janmaat@ioe.ac.uk
A Llakes briefing paper, Education, Opportunity and Social Cohesion, is available from the IOE press office: James Russell, + 44 (0) 20 7911 5556, j.russell@ioe.ac.uk
A new book, Regimes of Social Cohesion: Societes and the Crisis of Globalisation, by Andy Green and Jan Germen Janmaat (Palgrave) has just been published.
A briefing event, “Education, opportunity and social cohesion” is taking place Tuesday 28 June, 17.00-19.00, Room 739, Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way. Attendance is free, but places are limited: please send a booking e-mail to llakesevents@ioe.ac.uk.
The Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES), funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) investigates the roles of lifelong learning both in promoting economic competitiveness and social cohesion, and in mediating the interactions between the two domains.
The Institute of Education is a college of the University of London that specialises in education and related areas of social science and professional practice. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise two-thirds of the publications that the IOE submitted were judged to be internationally significant and over a third were judged to be “world leading”. The Institute was recognised by Ofsted in 2010 for its “high quality” initial teacher training programmes that inspire its students “to want to be outstanding teachers”. The IOE is a member of the 1994 group, which brings together 19 internationally renowned, research-intensive universities. www.ioe.ac.uk
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK’s largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC’s total budget for 2010/11 is £218 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes. More at www.esrc.ac.uk
