How can school systems do better for disadvantaged students?

Stephen Gorard, Nadia Siddiqui, Beng Huat See, Nada El-Soufi, Binwei Lu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Governments and education systems worldwide have tried using additional cash transfers to encourage school enrolment and attendance and to reduce the attainment gap between disadvantaged students and their peers. There are now many strands of evidence on the success of such schemes. This chapter presents the results of international structured reviews of the existing evidence, coupled with a summary of the new findings from a 14-year evaluation of the impact of the Pupil Premium funding policy in England. This overview suggests that payments to improve attendance are best given to individuals rather than schools, conditional on attendance or progression. The attainment gap between socioeconomically disadvantaged pupils and the rest is strongly linked to the level of clustering (or segregation) of poorer students between schools. Such social segregation can be reduced by offering schools funding to take disadvantaged students, and segregation has declined substantially following such a scheme in England after 2010. This decline is linked to an uneven decline in the attainment gap. The chapter concludes with suggestions for policy and practice on how to improve the situation further.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAn International Approach to Developing Early Career Researchers
Subtitle of host publicationA Pipeline to Robust Education Research
EditorsStephen Gorard, Nadia Siddiqui
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter7
Pages77-86
Number of pages10
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9781003455066, 9781040027516
ISBN (Print)9781032592800, 9781032595207
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 May 2024

Publication series

NameRoutledge Research in Higher Education
PublisherRoutledge

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 selection and editorial matter, Stephen Gorard and Nadia Siddiqui; individual chapters, the contributors.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Social Sciences
  • General Psychology

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