Education Policy Institute research on gaps in grades

In 2020, the average GCSE grade gap between pupils trapped in long-term poverty, those eligible for free school meals for 80 per cent of their schooling or more, were 1.6 grades behind their peers.

Last night, Durham City MP Mary Kelly Foy said the report, from the Education Policy Institute, showed "pupils in poorer areas have been left behind by those in more affluent areas".

The report also found that poorer pupils in 16-19 education were on average the equivalent of 3.1 A level grades behind wealthier peers across their best three qualifications in 2020, compared to 2.9 grades in 2019.

For pupils aged 16-19 in long-term poverty, the gap stood at 4 grades in 2020, compared to 3.7 in 2019.

Durham City MP Mary Kelly Foy (Image: Contributor)

Ms Foy said: “The evidence speaks for itself. It is incredibly worrying.

“It should never be forgotten that, only two years ago this Conservative Government created an algorithm that literally awarded richer children better grades.

“Improving Education and skills will be absolutely vital in order to level up areas like the North East.

“It's damning that under the Conservatives this gap has grown.

“Worryingly, Michael Gove was Education Minister when this trend began, and is now the Minister responsible for levelling up and tasked with reversing this trend. This data suggests the Conservatives are not up to the job. “They are out of ideas and it is our region's children who will pay the price.”

The report, also found that the grade gap between disadvantaged pupils, those eligible for free school meals at any time over the last six years, had stalled, with a gap of 1.24 grades in 2020 compared with 1.26 in 2019, and little progress made in closing it since 2017.

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Professor Becky Francis, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation said: “The new research from EPI is an important reminder that education inequality remains firmly entrenched in our system.

“Even before the onset of the pandemic, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds struggled to match the academic achievement of their classmates.

“The hard-won progress that teachers have made towards closing these attainment gaps has stalled, likely as a direct result of the increasing child poverty, combined with the disruptions to learning we’ve seen over the past two years.

“It is our collective responsibility to make sure that disadvantaged students, in every region of the country, are supported to achieve their potential.

“The pupil premium is arguably the most important tool we have for addressing this challenge.

“It is more important than ever that we redouble our efforts to make sure that these vital resources are used in ways that make the biggest difference to children and young people.”

The researchers found that there had been a “marked increase” in long-term poverty among poorer pupils in recent years.

In 2020, 39 per cent of poorer pupils had been eligible for free school meals for 80 per cent of their schooling or longer, up from 35 per cent in 2017.

The proportion of pupils who were “always” disadvantaged, those on free school meals for 100 per cent of their schooling, had also risen from 19 per cent of all disadvantaged students in 2017 to 25 per cent in 2020.

Areas with the largest disadvantage gaps were more likely to have a high proportion of pupils in long-term poverty, and for several areas, over half of their disadvantaged pupils fell into this group, such as: Sunderland (54 per cent), Middlesbrough (53 per cent), and Hartlepool (51 per cent).

Easington MP Grahame Morris (Image: Contributor)

Easington MP Grahame Morris said: “A decade of failure and more students falling into long term poverty.

“A decade of Tory education policy is holding back our communities and denying the poorest children the life opportunities they deserve.

“Tory MPs’ are repeating the levelling up lie like a mantra as a replacement for real and effective policy.

“I would call on the Government to do more to help our young people, however, the evidence of this report shows that Government policy does more harm than good.

“Education is the key to social mobility, better life chances, and a stronger economy.

“Our schools should be world-class centres of learning excellence with the resources and facilities to power the UK into a new industrial revolution.

“However, every day the Conservative Party stays in office, more children fall into poverty, more children are denied opportunity and life chances, and more children lose aspiration and hope for the future.”

The Northern Echo contacted County Durham Tory MPs Richard Holden, Dehenna Davison and Paul Howell as well as Hartlepool MP Jill Mortimer for comment but they all failed to respond.

Emily Hunt, a co-author of the report and associate director at EPI, said that the paper showed there had been a “decade of failure” when it came to improving attainment for pupils in long-term poverty.

She said: “Our research shows that despite Government policy interventions, there has been a decade of failure to improve the relative outcomes of students in long-term poverty – with these students still trailing their better-off peers by over a full grade and a half at GCSE.

“Not only has this education gap failed to narrow since 2011, but the proportion of poorer students falling into long-term poverty is now on the rise,” she added.

Ms Hunt said that after “two years of disruption from the pandemic” it was “particularly critical” for the Government to act to “reverse this tide of stagnating social mobility”.

David Robinson, report co-author and director of Post-16 and Skills at EPI, said that it was “deeply concerning” that the grade gaps between poorer college and sixth form students and their peers were widening.

“Our research findings are very clear: these growing inequalities were driven by A levels gaining more from the system of teacher assessed grades than Applied General Qualifications, which far more disadvantaged students take. The result is that poorer students could have lost out when competing for university places,” he added.

“These findings ought to alarm the Government, and we hope that urgent action is taken to ensure that students taking BTECs and other alternatives to A levels do not lose out again in 2022.”

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