Executive Summary
British families are told that if their children go to school and work hard, they will be rewarded with
good jobs and opportunities. But for many groups this promise is being broken. In recent months,
the low educational attainment of White British boys has gained significant attention. However,
when it comes to the transition from education to employment, this group is less likely to be
unemployed and to face social immobility than their female counterparts, black students and young Asian Muslims. Why is this the case?
This report explores the complexities of adding ethnicity and gender to an analysis of socioeconomic Status (SES) gaps. It considers some of the ways in which gender, ethnicity and SES interact with education to produce or reduce social mobility. It then explores a vast body of research into how young people’s longer term social mobility depends on how educational outcomes at schools translate into participation and achievement in Higher Education and the labour market. For each of our key findings, we recommend questions for future research and areas in urgent need of policy interventions.
In Section One, we summarise trends in attainment according to gender, SES and ethnicity and how these factors interact. We do this through new quantitative analysis of the National Pupil Database as well as by using recent research for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), and the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU). The literature review in Section Two then draws on quantitative and qualitative sources to explore causal factors for such gaps as well as how educational attainment translates into the labour market. Each section examines students’ trajectories as they progress through the early years, primary and secondary school, through to sixth form and on to university.
Our unique research aims to inform the understanding of intersectionality between ethnicity,
gender and SES and further the debate by providing new insights and conclusions. It sets out
recommendations to Government, universities, schools and early years providers. Our analysis
concludes that urgent action is needed beyond education across all sectors of the labour market and society to address the barriers young people face upon entry to the labour market. It is striking that many of the groups that either attain highest, or are improving their achievement fastest at school, are not yet able to translate educational success into labour market outcomes. This is a particular issue for some ethnic groups and women.
Achievement of a good degree has a profound impact on long-term social mobility and there are
huge differences in attainment between ethnic groups and men and women. This is particularly
evident when examining the socio-economic attainment gap, which is evident from the early years. Despite recent progress, disadvantaged children fall further behind at secondary school rather than catching up. These differences impact on life chances in the labour market, particularly for people from Black or Asian Muslim communities. A range of factors give rise to these differences and some require further research to understand specific issues. However, with regards to participation in the labour market, key factors include cultural, family and individual expectations, geography and direct/indirect discrimination. Meanwhile in education, differences arise from access to schools,teacher’s perceptions of behaviour, parental expectations and support, and practices such as tiering and setting.
Our key findings include:
1. A White British vulnerability to school underperformance. Although in every ethnic group, those eligible for Free School Meals, (FSM, a key indicator of SES), underperform compared to their more affluent peers, White British and White Other children from low income homes are the
lowest performing groups at primary school. White British pupils also make the least progress
throughout secondary school resulting in a worsening in their performance by key stage four.
The socio-economic attainment gap is largest amongst White British pupils at all Key Stages and
this trend may reflect particularly wide disparities in household incomes amongst non-FSM pupils
from this ethnic group.
In the early years the socio-economic gap is larger for ‘White British’ and ‘White Other’
groups than other minority ethnic groups.
- Disadvantaged ‘White British’ and ‘White Other’ pupils are the lowest performing groups at
primary and secondary school. During secondary school, disadvantaged White British pupils
make slower progress and therefore fall further behind. - At all key stages, these groups perform least highly of all ethnic groups in English. Until Key
Stage 4 it is ‘Other White’ eligible pupils who perform most poorly however at Key Stage 4
these pupils do better than their eligible White British peers. - In Maths, as in English, the same trend applies, with the exception of Early Years Foundation
Stage Profile (EYFSP) where FSM eligible Pakistani/Bangladeshi pupils also perform poorly. - Disadvantaged young people from White British backgrounds are the least likely to access
Higher Education, with only 1 in 10 of the poorest attending university, compared to 3 in 10
for Black Caribbean children, 5 in 10 for Bangladeshis and nearly 7 in 10 amongst lowest
income Chinese students. - Despite this, ethnic minority groups experience higher unemployment rates compared to
White British groups.
2. A Black penalty in secondary and higher education. Despite starting school ahead with
performance largely in line with national averages, Black children fail to show this advantage
higher up the age range. They are the ethnic group most likely to fail their Maths GCSE, most
likely to be excluded from school and one of the least likely groups to achieve a good degree at
university. Black boys do substantially less well than their female peers particularly at Key Stage
4. Furthermore, granular analysis of different Black sub-groups (for example Black African cf.
Black Caribbean) has also shown distinctive patterns in achievement.
- Black children now enter school with levels of literacy and numeracy that are largely in line
with the average child in the UK – 67 and 75 per cent achieving a good level at age 5 in
literacy and numeracy respectively, compared to the national average of 69 and 76 per cent. - Yet by the end of primary school, Black pupils are beginning to fall behind the national
average in maths, particularly boys. While 77 per cent of pupils achieve expected levels
nationally, for Black pupils this is 74 per cent and for Black boys, only 73 per cent. - Secondary school is where Black pupils’ attainment falls behind substantially and by age of
16, Black students are the ethnic group least likely to achieve a C in their Maths GCSE – only
63 per cent attaining this level, compared to a national average of 68 per cent. For Black
boys this is worse, at 60 per cent. - At Key Stage 5, Black pupils are the ethnic group with the lowest outcomes. The low GCSE
attainment translates into strikingly low attainment in Science Technology Engineering and
Maths (STEM) A-levels at Key Stage 5. - At university Black students are particularly vulnerable to dropping out and attaining poorly.
They are also less than half as likely to get a First as their white counterparts and more than
1 in 10 Black university students drop out of their HE course in their first year.
Black children are the ethnic group most likely to grow up in poverty, with a quarter of students
eligible for FSM. The literature on their underachievement points to conscious and unconscious bias in the treatment of Black pupils, particularly boys. Recent statistics bear this out: 21.7 per cent of Black Caribbean pupils are identified as having SEND compared to 15.2 per cent of all pupils, and
Black Caribbean boys were three times were more likely to receive a fixed period exclusion in 2013-
14 than the average pupil (12 per cent of the school population for the former group compared to
3.95 per cent for all pupils).
3. A broken mobility promise for Asian Muslims, particularly women. Young people from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds are more likely than ever to succeed in education and go on to
university, girls even more so than boys. Yet these outcomes are not yet being translated into
labour market returns – with unemployment particularly prevalent amongst Bangladeshi women,
and both Pakistani men and women are relatively unlikely to secure managerial or professional
occupations.
- There has been an increase in educational attainment for Pakistani/Bangladeshi pupils and
their performance has improved at a more rapid rate than other ethnic groups in recent
years at almost every key stage of education. Almost half of Bangladeshi and over a third of
Pakistani young people from the poorest quintile go to university. - However, this is not yet reflected in labour market outcomes, particularly for women, where
British Bangladeshi and Pakistani women earn less than their counterparts from other ethnic
minority groups - Despite achieving higher qualifications at school than their male counterparts, female
Bangladeshi graduates are less likely to gain managerial and professional roles than male
Bangladeshi graduates. - Discrimination in the workplace puts some groups, in particular Muslim women, at a
disadvantage preventing them from translating educational attainment into labour market
returns. - A range of factors give rise to these differences including cultural norms, family and
individual expectations, as well as geography and discrimination.
4. Female underperformance in STEM subjects. In recent years girls’ outperformance of boys in
examinations has frequently been highlighted with girls more likely to participate in Higher
Education and more likely to achieve higher grades. However, our analysis shows that this
pattern is broken when it comes to Maths attainment and in STEM subjects. In these areas, both
genders perform more similarly and in some cases (such as Key Stage 2 Maths), boys outperform
girls. This trend may contribute towards highly gendered post-16 subject choices and careers,
with females for example much less likely to take STEM A-levels. Whilst males’ subject choices
are also gendered, low uptake of STEM subjects by females may constrain their social mobility.
We found:
- In Maths and English, girls outperform boys throughout primary and secondary school apart
from in Maths at Key Stage 2, where poorer girls in particular lag behind boys. - Females and males now perform similarly in STEM subjects with boys increasing their
performance over recent years. However, girls are less likely to take these subjects. - At all Key Stages in Maths and English, attainment has increased the most amongst FSM
pupils, particularly amongst FSM girls in Maths.