Research on the Achievement Gap

Mind the gap
 
A new research report published by the Department for Education in the UK explores success and good practice in supporting the achievement of disadvantaged students, and concludes that schools have meaningful scope to make a difference.

In England, the performance gap between students from more- and less-advantaged backgrounds is one of the largest among OECD countries. The current research used school-level data, surveys, and interviews to identify schools that have successfully narrowed the gap, common features across these schools, and what lessons can be learned from success stories.

The authors found that between one- and two-thirds of the variance between schools in terms of disadvantaged students' achievement can be explained by school-level characteristics, suggesting that intake and circumstance are influential but do not totally determine outcomes.

The study identified seven "building blocks" for success:
  • Promote an ethos of achievement for all students, rather than stereotyping disadvantaged students as a group with less potential to succeed.
  • Have an individualized approach to addressing barriers to learning and emotional support at an early stage, rather than providing access to generic support and focusing on students nearing the end of key stages.  
  • Focus on high-quality teaching first rather than add-on strategies and activities outside school hours.
  • Focus on outcomes for individual students rather than on providing strategies.
  • Deploy the best staff to support disadvantaged students; develop skills and roles of teachers and TAs rather than using additional staff who do not know the students well.
  • Make decisions based on data and respond to evidence using frequent, rather than one-off, assessment and decision points.
  • Have clear, responsive leadership: setting ever-higher aspirations and devolving responsibility for raising achievement to all staff, rather than accepting low aspirations and variable performance.
The report also has an accompanying briefing for school leaders which summarizes the findings, identifies school risk factors and how schools can address them, and provides a list of suggested next steps.

Johns Hopkins University 

Research in Brief

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