This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Disadvantaged students are less likely than their more advantaged peers with similar attainment to take and pass entrance exams for selective schools, and introducing an opt-out system for the tests would only deliver a small boost. That's according to a major new study published in the peer-reviewed journal British Journal of Sociology of Education.
The results follow an analysis of population-level data from Kent, in England, where there is a high concentration of grammar schools. Binwei Lu, Professor Jake Anders, Dr. Xin Shao and Joanne Bartley, from Durham University, UCL, Zhejiang University and St Paul's School, examined two distinct stages of the selection process: whether pupils choose to take the entrance test and whether they go on to pass it.
Their results demonstrate that 67% of students classed as more advantaged (those not eligible for free school meals (FSM)) were able to take a test, compared to just 40% of pupils who did receive FSM. This difference is not just about these pupils' academic attainment: even among pupils who scored highly in their Key Stage 2 SATs, 84% of non-FSM pupils took the 11+, compared to just 56% of FSM pupils. The disadvantaged students who do take the exam are also less likely to pass it than their more advantaged peers of similar attainment.
However, introducing an opt-out system for the tests or giving disadvantaged pupils extra marks would only deliver a small boost to the representation of disadvantaged pupils. The researchers concluded these prominent policy reform proposals may fail to deal with the deeper issues of socioeconomic disadvantage in selective education. Lead author Lu (Zhejiang University and The Evidence Center for Education, Durham University) said, "Even when pupils are academically capable, substantial barriers of awareness, confidence and school encouragement seem to discourage less advantaged families from signing their children up for selection tests.
"When disadvantaged students do take the 11+, they are less likely than equally attaining but more advantaged peers to successfully secure a place at a selective grammar school, and the gap between these two groups becomes more evident at higher levels of national test performance. It is therefore oversimplifying to suggest that the lower proportion of FSM pupils passing the selective school test is entirely the result of their lower academic attainment." Co-author Shao (UCL Institute of Education and St Paul's School) said, "These disparities show how barriers to accessing selective education develop long before the selection and assessment process begins." In order to test whether the representation of disadvantaged students at grammar schools would increase if all students took the 11+, the researchers conducted a simulation. They found that introducing an opt-out system for selection tests, rather than the existing opt-in process, would increase the proportion of disadvantaged pupils at selective schools, but only moderately, from 7.8% to 12%.
The researchers believe that test-taking behavior is not a major driver of the lack of disadvantaged students at selective schools, although revising selection rules to improve fairness remains important. The researchers concluded that tinkering with the selection process cannot and will not make fundamental differences in opening up a high-quality education to all young people, regardless of background. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. d research that matter—daily or weekly.
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