Too many schools fail pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, says report

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/06/schools-fail-pupils-disadvantaged-backgrounds

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Tens of thousands of children from disadvantaged backgrounds could have their lives transformed if underperforming schools matched the results achieved by similar pupils in the most progressive schools in England, a report says today.

The report from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty (SMCP) commission, headed by former Labour cabinet minister Alan Milburn, says that schools are letting down many children from the worst-off circumstances, while others from similar backgrounds are able to excel.

“If some schools can do it, there is no excuse for others not to,” said Milburn, who claimed the report “unearthed a new and shocking gap in performance between similar schools serving similar communities”.

But some teaching unions took issue with the report’s conclusions, arguing that schools could only do so much to counteract the effects of poverty and circumstance.

“There is no excuse for low expectations anywhere in the system but schools must have the additional support they need, from the government and from other agencies, to help children overcome the challenges that life throws at them,” said Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.

The union reaction runs counter to the SMCP commission’s findings, with the report concluding: “Some schools seem to have learnt the secret of how to alleviate the impact of background on life chances. They have found a way of overcoming the barriers that impede social mobility.”

The SMCP said huge gaps in the exam performance of disadvantaged pupils – ranging from more than 60% passing GCSEs in some schools, down to just 20% in others – showed that many state schools in England needed to do a better job in helping the worst off.

The research found that if every school in England improved the performance of pupils from poor backgrounds so they were half as good as those achieved by the best performing schools, 60,000 more children would have gained five good GCSE passes, including English and maths, last year. “Headteachers and governors have a responsibility to ensure that every teacher in every school has uniformly high expectations of their students,” Milburn said.

In response, a Department for Education spokesman said: “We know there is more to do, but this report proves that the best state schools can overcome disadvantage thanks to our reforms and the work of skilful, dedicated and hard-working teachers.”

Lightman, who represents many secondary school heads and leaders, said there were no simple answers. “In the most challenging areas, schools are finding it more difficult than ever to recruit staff. Constant changes to the examination system are making it more difficult for students from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed,” he said.

The commission used the national pupil database to compare schools with similar levels of disadvantage. It then used modelling to discover the effects of schools closing half the gap with the top 20% of schools with similar concentrations of disadvantage. The results showed that at least 14,000 more disadvantaged students each year would pass five good GCSEs including English and maths – a 25% increase.

The 25% improvement was greater even than a similar experiment using levels of prior attainment between primary school and GCSEs for all pupils, not just disadvantaged ones. In other words, if all schools whose pupils achieved similar results in primary school were able to close half the achievement gap with the top 20% of schools, the effect would only see a 19% increase in GCSE passes.