Differential Educational Achievement by Social Class, Gender and Ethnicity - Trends

Question 1

Trends based upon receipt of Free School Meals

Answer 1

Trends in education show that students in receipt of free school meals are less likely to achieve 5 GCSEs than their counterparts on free school meals. Free school meals usually is an indicator for sociologists studying education that the student lacks the economic resources to succeed in education.

Question 2

Trends based upon gender

Answer 2

In recent years, there has been a concern about the performance of boys in the education system, particularly those from a working-class background. Some sociologists have pointed to the improvement of females and suggested that the education system has become feminized and favours girl’s performance over boys due to the increased dominance of female teachers and leaders.
However other sociologists would suggest that changes in the job market have meant that there is little to motivate boys to succeed and often they are choose subjects that do not require academic qualifications.

Question 3

Trends based upon ethnic groups

Answer 3

There are achievement differences between ethnic groups. For example, Chinese and Indian pupils tend to do better than average, while Bangladeshi and black pupils do worse. There are class and gender differences within groups: e.g. black females do better than black males.

Question 4

Strand

Answer 4

Strand’s (2010) analysis of the entire national cohort of over 530,000 7-11 year olds shows how quickly many black pupils fall behind after starting school. He found that black Caribbean boys not entitled to free school meals, especially the more able pupils, made significantly less progress than their white peers.