Attainment Gap Widening

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has published a major report, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, on the disadvantage gap in education.

“The disadvantage gap” – the gap in grades between disadvantaged students and their peers – is a leading measure of social mobility in England and an indicator of the government’s progress in reducing inequalities in education.

The report examines the gap in 2020 at a national level, across different regions and local authorities, among varying levels of disadvantage, and at two stages of education – key stage four and five.

The research offers the first comprehensive picture of the impact of 2020 grades on different students – the year that saw the first switch to teacher assessed grades.

The study finds that:

• The gap in GCSE grades between students in long-term poverty and their better off peers has failed to improve over the last ten years.
• More students have now fallen into longer-term poverty.
• Fears that the switch to teacher assessed grades for GCSEs in 2020 would penalise students from disadvantaged backgrounds are largely unfounded – with no evidence poorer GCSE students lost out under this system.
• But for students in college and sixth form (16-19 education), the gap in grades between poorer students and their better off peers widened in 2020.
• This was driven by A level students gaining a whole grade more from teacher assessments than those who studied qualifications such as BTECs.

The full report can be accessed here.