Poverty & Education

Child poverty is a well researched issue owing to a number of factors. The link between childhood poverty and adult life outcomes are unequivocal, especially in more deprived societies. Numerous theories exist relating to childhood poverty and adult opportunity. Investment Theory argues that a child’s inability to participate in the purchase of material goods will have a negative influence on their adult life chances to do so. Role Model Theory posits that poverty suffered by a child’s parents and other significant adults in the child’s life convey less desirable cultural norms for the child to aspire to. Parental Stress Theory suggests that poverty causes high levels of stress and less capability in parents which are passed on to children. This paper concentrates on the link between educational achievement and poverty, why the link exists and what is being done about it. Whilst this is an issue that can be considered globally this paper focuses predominantly on the United Kingdom. The author taught in a number of schools within impoverished societies in Greater Manchester and witnessed the effect first hand. This paper will begin by considering the global aspects of defining poverty drawing on Non-Governmental Organisations such as UNESCO, the World Bank and the OECD. The ability to understand how poverty is defined globally is important to the understanding of the main foci that follow in order to consider the question: “What causes the globally recognised educational achievement gap between children in poverty and those from wealthier families, and in the UK why has policy in recent years failed to deliver?” Paper written June 2015 as part of a Masters in Education.

York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2007

Potter and Alex Tennant. My thanks to them for giving freely of their time and for their constructive criticism. vii viii x Ridge talked to children and young people aged ten to 17 and found that children living in low-income families were more likely to be socially excluded, or to exclude themselves, within school. They expressed concerns about having the right clothes, particularly for non-uniform days. Even with school uniforms, they were concerned about having the 'right' shoes or trainers. Many young people whose families lived in poverty were unable to participate fully in school life, because their parents simply could not afford it. Save the Children and the Children's Rights Alliance in England (Willow, 2001) and Save the Children in Wales (Crowley and Vulliamy, 2002) talked to children and young people about the effects of poverty and found that even children as young as Most advantaged Most disadvantaged Key Stage 1 maths (% level 3) 50 21 Key Stage 1 English (% level 3) 42 12 Key stage 2 maths (% level 5) 46 15 Key Stage 2 English (% level 5) 25 2 Source: Gallagher (2006). Non-FSM Eligible for FSM Key Stage 1 maths (% level 2 and above) 93 80 Key Stage 1 reading (% level 2 and above) 88 70 Key Stage 2 maths (% level 4 and above) 78 55 Key Stage 2 English (% level 4 and above) 81 58 Source: DfES (2005). Socioeconomic context of schools The impact of poverty on children's school experiences cannot be explored, or explained, without taking into account the social, economic and educational context in which the schools are situated. There is considerable evidence of a link between areas with high levels of deprivation and lower levels of educational attainment. Wheeler et al. (2005) studied the relationship between poverty, affl uence and area. They found that those areas with the highest proportions of young people with no qualifi cations tend to have the fewest teachers available. By contrast, those areas with a higher proportion of qualifi ed young people tend to have many adults (around the age of these young people's parents) with degree-level qualifi cations. Lupton (2004, 2005) found a strong relationship between levels of deprivation and the 'quality' of schools in an area. Lupton does, however, counsel caution in relation to the defi nition of 'quality' in schools, since many of the 'quality' measures are measures of outcome and do not take account of progress made by pupils who start with high levels of disadvantage. Nor do such measures always value the work that schools in disadvantaged areas have to do to promote children's 'welfare and spiritual, moral, social and cultural development' (Lupton, 2005, p. 590). The Department of Education is also the lead government department working to draw up a programme of measures across a range of areas to best target the Children and Young People Funding Package of £100 million over 2006/07 and 2007/08. The overall objective of the Children and Young People funding package is:

2015

The literature on poverty and schooling is expansive yet can reasonably be understood as an attempt to grapple with the same core questions from different perspectives:

2010

This report considers some of the ways that affluence and disadvantage influence children's educational attainment. It focuses on a broad set of factors, varying across childhood, classified under the broad umbrella term 'aspirations, attitudes and behaviours'. The implications for ...

A Companion to Research in Teacher Education

Poverty and educational research rarely view schooling experiences and identities of children as tied in to the socioeconomic conditions and associated social milieu as worthy of attention, as both view poverty as a mere barrier to educational access. This paper argues that simplistic connections between educational provisioning and poverty miss the more important idea embedded (but unheeded) in the construct of 'capability deprivation'-that of foregrounding the criticality of educational process. Empirical accounts reveal the dominant school ethos to be one where children of the poor are perceived with stigmatised identities and treated as non-epistemic entities. Hence, children of the poor are excluded from learning not because of the absence of conditions necessary for enabling participation and learning but because of the presence of conditions of capability deprivation that are found to characterise the everyday classroom. It is argued that a collusion between the manner in which quality of education and its relationship with poverty is conceptualised and positioned in the era of market-based reforms, sets the conditions for the production of capability deprivation.

This study investigates the influence of poverty on students' learning outcomes at the secondary school level, focusing on the district of Muzaffargarh. Utilizing a quantitative approach, data was gathered through a questionnaire administered to 200 teachers across secondary schools, with a total of 996 8th-grade students participating from the district. Two primary research questions were addressed: 1) the impact of social and emotional issues on student learning, and 2) the impact of low academic achievement. The questionnaire's validity and reliability were ensured through expert opinion and Cronbach Alpha scores during the pilot phase in Muzaffargarh district. Analysis of the collected data revealed significant findings. Notably, female students in Tehsil Chowk Munda exhibited a superior performance by 23.95% compared to their counterparts in Tehsil Jatoi, where the performance margin was 11.59%. These results underscore the differential effects of poverty on academic outcomes, emphasizing the need for targeted interventions to address disparities and enhance educational equity among students facing socioeconomic challenges.

Research by the Department of Education at Oxford University shows gaps in educational achievement at age 16 have decreased substantially over the last 25 years, particularly in the attainment of different ethnic groups. The research shows pupils from most ethnic minority groups are now on average achieving GCSE results that are as good or better than their White British peers. The study by Professor Steve Strand, commissioned for the Department for Education, draws on data for attainment and ethnicity between 1991 and 2013. It shows that Indian and Chinese pupils are now pulling well ahead of their White British classmates, with Bangladeshi and Black African students improving their GCSE grades significantly and starting to do better, on average, than white British pupils. This is despite the fact that Bangladeshi and black African students are often from very socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds The two lowest achieving groups are currently Black Caribbean and Mixed White and Black Caribbean students, according to the study. Yet, again the longstanding gaps in the academic attainment of these two groups have closed substantially. In 2004, only 24% of black Caribbean pupils achieved five or more GCSE A*-C grades or their equivalent including English and Mathematics (5EM). This was nearly half the rate for white British students (41.6%) and a gap of 17.6 percentage points. Nearly 10 years on, in 2013, this gap had narrowed to just 7.2 percentage points (53.3% vs. 60.5%). The study shows that the ethnic gap has also reduced in relative terms. While in 2004 the black Caribbean-white British gap was twice as large as the gender gap, by 2013 it was actually smaller (7.2% points compared to a gender gap of 10.1 percentage points). However both gaps are substantially smaller than the socio-economic gap, with only 37.9% of the most economically disadvantaged students (those from families entitled to Free School Meals) achieving 5EM compared to 64.6% of those not entitled to FSM, a gap of 26.7 percentage points. Steve Strand, Professor of Education, commented: ‘These findings show that we have to consider how ethnic factors overlap with social and economic disadvantage, and not treat them as separate dimensions. Huge strides have been made in schools in England in closing the ethnic gap in educational attainment. These results show what can be achieved with targeted funding, particularly the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant that ran until 2012/2013, and the strong focus through policies, including Excellence in Cities, and programmes through the National Strategies. ‘Children disadvantaged for social and economic reasons now do better at school than in the past. In the late 1980s, the chance of getting good exam grades at age 16 for students from well-off families was seven times higher than for children from less advantaged backgrounds. Now children from well off homes are around three times more likely. The gap is still too large but the data shows it is possible to reduce the seemingly intractable social and economic divide. We have to hope that redistributive funding, such as the Pupil Premium Grant, can bring more progress in closing gaps that still exist.’

2009

Individual copy price: £10.00 The Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning (WBL) is core funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). It investigates the benefits that learning brings to the individual and to society as a whole. WBL's main objectives are to clarify, model and quantify the outcomes of all forms of intentional learning so as to inform the funding, implementation and practice of educational provision through the lifecourse. The views that are expressed in this work are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the DCSF. All errors and omissions are those of the authors. The Wider Benefits of Learning Research Report Series The reports in this series are published by the Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning, Institute of Education, London. Reports published to date are listed below and are available online at www.learningbenefits.net. 2009 30. Nurturing parenting capability: the early years 2008 29. The importance of social worlds: an investigation of peer relationships 28. The influence of context on attainment in primary school: interactions between children, family and school contexts 27. Determinants of aspirations 26. Educational inequality and juvenile crime: An area-based analysis 25. Children's well-being in primary school: pupil and school effects 2007 23. What role for the three Rs? Progress and attainment through primary school 22. Parenting behaviours and children's development from infancy to early childhood: changes, continuities and contributions 21. Determinants and pathways of progression to level 2 qualifications: evidence from the NCDS and BHPS 2006 20. Development in the early years: its importance for school performance and adult outcomes 19. Are there effects of mothers' post-16 education on the next generation? Effects on children's development and mothers' parenting 18. What is the relationship between child nutrition and school outcomes? iv 6. The few studies that look at whether some schools are more effective for one sex or the other find no discernable differences between observable school characteristics and gender differences in attainment. Ethnicity 7. The mean score in KS3 assessments in English, mathematics and science for Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean and Black African groups are all substantially below the mean for White British pupils. This difference is equivalent to more than one year of progress in terms of National Curriculum levels. 8. However, when background factors such as neighbourhood disadvantage and FSM status are controlled for, Bangladeshi, African and Caribbean pupils show a greater performance advantage over White British pupils and are more likely to avoid low achievement. 9. Many ethnic groups make stronger educational progress during the KS4 period-Years 10 and 11-than they do during KS3-Years 7, 8 and 9. Black African and Bangladeshi pupils have caught up with the White British group by the end of KS4, and Indian pupils only marginally ahead of White British pupils at KS3 are substantially ahead at the end of compulsory schooling. At KS4, the mean score for Black Caribbean pupils remains significantly lower than the mean for White British pupils. 10. Mobility out of low achievement-progress from KS2 when pupils are age 11 to KS4-varies greatly by ethnic group. The White British group have the highest risk of remaining in the lowest 10 per cent of the achievement distribution if they start there. They are also less likely to retain 'continuing high achievers' statusstaying in the top 10 per cent at KS4 given this position at KS2-than Bangladeshis, Indians or Pakistanis. Aspirations 11. Teenage aspirations often predict future attainment both in occupational and educational spheres. From the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth (LSAY): intentions to leave or complete school formed early in secondary schooling are significantly related to participation in the latter years of schooling. 12. Aspirations may have an independent effect on later attainment, separate from other influences. From the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE): the aspirations of young people (aged 14) to stay in education beyond the age of 16 boosted their national test scores by an additional 1.6 points (i.e., equivalent to one and a half terms of learning) compared with those young people who did not have such aspirations. The effect was still present, although reduced, when controlling for prior attainment. 13. High aspirations do not always predict high attainment among some minority ethnic groups. Black African and Black Caribbean pupils, for example, have higher aspirations than White British pupils, but they have lower attainment. v The family Socioeconomic background 14. Higher achievement is negatively associated with economic and social disadvantage; children growing up in more disadvantaged families perform, on average, less well than children born into more advantaged families. This becomes evident before children enter school, and is exacerbated as pupils progress through the education system: pupils eligible for FSM fall further behind non-FSM pupils at each Key Stage. 15. The most recent data based on GCSE results from 2007/08 show that of pupils in the most deprived decile, 29.4 per cent achieved five or more A*-C GCSEs including English and mathematics (and equivalent), compared with 70 per cent of pupils in the least deprived decile. Home environment and parental involvement 16. Positive, consistent and engaged parenting styles have an impact on children's development. Supportive family relationships and secure attachment in childhood act as sources of resilience in the face of social or economic disadvantage in adulthood. 17. Parents' educational behaviours with their children are important for their cognitive development, particularly during the early years, having a significant and independent influence on attainment at age three, as well as at entry to primary school. Studies also show that children whose homes offer a more stimulating learning environment (measured at age 8) have a higher academic intrinsic motivation between the ages of nine and thirteen. 18. Home learning environment and the nature of parental involvement may have a greater influence on child achievement outcomes than variation in school quality. Parental aspirations 19. There are strong associations between teachers' assessments of the interest in learning of their students' parents and the attainment of children. Growth in attainment between the ages of 11 and 16 is related to the parents' interest in their child's education, as rated by teachers when that child was age seven. 20. Parental aspirations are key factors in the attainment of young people, perhaps even more important than other family and parent characteristics. Recent studies indicate that parental aspirations may have a greater effect on national test scores than other parental variables such as health, values, and involvement in learning. The school School characteristics and composition 21. Children attending higher quality or more effective preschool settings show better educational outcomes in mathematics and reading at the end of Year 5 (aged 10). Children attending low quality preschool settings do not show the vi same continued gains. Attending a good quality primary school can offset the potential negative influence of going to a less effective preschool. 22. The impact of primary schools on students' attainment at age 16+ is likely to be substantially larger than the impact of their secondary schooling. 23. Value-added analysis of primary school data suggests that, on average, students make more progress in schools with a high proportion of girls, and less progress in schools with a high proportion of students entitled to FSM, and a high proportion of students with English as a second language. In general, the differences between these groups tend to increase, rather than decrease, over time. 24. The question whether single-sex schooling has any impact on academic outcomes remains contested. However, single-sex schooling is positively linked to the attainment of qualifications in 'gender atypical' subject areas for both girls and boys. Girls who attended girls' schools are more likely to achieve more mathematics and science passes than co-educated girls, and boys in boys' schools more passes in English and modern languages. Ability grouping, resources, class size 25. Much of the evidence suggests that the effect of ability-grouping on pupil attainment is limited and no firm conclusions can be drawn from the use of this strategy in schools. Indeed, there is some evidence to suggest that placement within low-ability groups has a negative impact on pupil attitudes to school and motivation, while students assigned to high-ability streams do better than in mixed-ability groups. Thus ability-grouping practices may widen gaps in attainment. 26. A large body of research fails to find evidence that giving extra money to schools makes a difference to overall levels of pupil attainment. While some studies show an association between higher levels of expenditure per pupil and higher levels of achievement there are difficulties in establishing a causal relationship between the two. 27. Much of the UK evidence reports little or no impact of class size; those class size that do exist are most marked in the first years of school. Leverages on low attainment Aspirations 28. Aimhigher encourages young people to aspire to university, and includes partnerships of schools, universities and other institutions targeting young people from backgrounds under-represented in higher education. The evaluation of Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge, a programme now incorporated into Aimhigher, found that participation in the programme was associated at KS3 with an improvement of 4.6 percentage points in the proportion of Year 9 students...