Today the Social Market Foundation’s Commission on Inequality in Education publishes a new piece of work that we have co-authored, arguing that inequalities in access to high quality teachers across schools may contribute to social inequalities in educational outcomes. Those who work in education often hear anecdotes suggesting that schools serving more disadvantaged communities have [...]
We were commissioned by Ofqual to consider the likely impact on different types of schools of different approaches to the award of grade 9 in new GCSEs. Three approaches to the award of grade 9 were modelled: 20% approach: the grade 9 boundary in each subject is set so that the top 20% of students [...]
Last month, DfE published new guidance for academies wanting to open a new school sixth form. The guidance includes the recommendation that they should have at least 200 pupils and offer 15 A levels (as reported in TES last week). We think over 40% of existing school sixth forms fail to meet these guidelines, for [...]
This is the first in a series of posts on the education white paper. The other parts can be found here. It has been just over a month since Educational Excellence Everywhere – the government’s education white paper – was published. In a document that covers topics ranging from teacher training to school funding, unsurprisingly the [...]
This morning, the Sutton Trust published our research into primary school admissions and social selection. For many the findings come as no surprise: there are thousands of highly socially selective primary schools that have intakes that are considerably more affluent than the neighbourhoods from which they recruit. They are more likely to be located in [...]
Once again this year we are running a course for researchers who would like to learn how to use the National Pupil Database. It is a 2-day training course in London held on the 4th and 5th of May, 2016. The course instructors will be Lorraine Dearden, Mike Treadaway, Dave Thomson and I. You can [...]
Over the last two decades, the number of young people in England getting a degree has risen sharply: up from around 10 per cent as recently as the 1990s, to more than 30 per cent today. This expansion has led to concerns being expressed in some quarters that not all young people who get a [...]
This year, 81 schools are using the new Proof of Progress Tests (PoP tests) from FFT to assess writing and conceptual understanding in maths at the start and end of Year 7. The tests are designed to be sensitive to learning, but resistant to practice effects. In other words, we would only expect pupils [...]
Last year we said we thought we needed about 2,500 extra language teachers to deliver the manifesto commitment to teach the EBacc to all students at KS4. In 2015, 50% of students in state mainstream schools were entered for a GCSE language, so achieving universal provision is an enormous undertaking. Some of these students can [...]
