Education And Ethnicity

Evidence on achievement and under achievement among minority ethnic groups

Highest achieving groups-

• Chinese and Indian Asian pupils consistently have higher levels of attainment and make the highest progress in school
• They are more likely to ahieve five or more GCSE grades A*-C
• They are more likely to stay in higher education

Lowest achieving groups-

• Black Caribbean, Pakistani, Bangledeshi and traveller pupils have lower grades 
• They have below average reading skills 
• They start of primary in school below white british students
• less likely to get five A*-C GCSE grades
• Black Caribbeans are over represented in special need schools
• There isn't a closing gap of educational achievement since 1990's in the UK 
• Black Carribbean's are more likely to be permantly excluded from schools
• Over represented in lower streams
• More likely to leave school with no qualifications

Explanations for Ethnic group differences 

Social Class and Material Factors-

• minority ethnic groups are more likely to live in low income households 
• in 2012/13  two-fifths of ethnic minorities were living in poverty- twice the rate of white british people-----> 1/3 black caribbeans, 1/2 Pakistani  and bangladeshi
• more likely to be unemployed and live in the poorest areas with the greatest concentration of social problems
• ethnic minorities face more problems like poor housing, overcrowding , unemployment and a general material disadvantage 
• material deprivation,e langauge differences, cultural deprivation, lack of social and cultural capital, teacher attitudes, teacher expectaions/labelling and the self fulfilling prophecy all conribute to the differences 
• Gilborn and Mirza 2000- point out that while social class remains the main influence on educaional attainment, social class differrences to not over ride the influence of ethnic inequality 
  

Language-

• 18% of children at primary school and 13% at secondary school did not have english as their first language according to official stats published in 2013
• language differences may cause difficulties in doing some school work and communicating with the teacher 
• The use of non-standard english and a heavy accent may be inconsciously penalized in the classroom 
• The swan report found that, while language differences cause a slight issue they were or little importance and DFES 2005 found that impact of language decreases as they get older 

Family life and Parental support-

• The Swan report and Pilkington 1997 found that ethnic minorities ethnic groups enjoy greater parental support and specifically Asain have a more tight- knit family with higheraspirations of their children
• Lupton 2004 suggests that lower working class white…