As hundreds of thousands of 16 year olds prepare to take their GCSEs this week, a new study by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, has found that parents’ own earlier academic achievements will impact significantly on their children’s chances of success at secondary school.
‘Inequality in Achievements in Adolescence’ by Dr Emilia Del Bono and Professor John Ermisch, found that better educated parents send their children to better quality schools and that the association between school quality and parental background is stronger at secondary school than at primary school. Parents’ own success at school or university meant they could afford to live in areas with good access to better schools for their offspring.
English children are far more likely to follow in their parents’ academic footsteps than Australian and Canadian children, with school results there showing more equality of opportunity for children from all backgrounds.
Published this week in “From Parents to Children – The Intergenerational Transmission of Advantage” the study reveals parents with higher levels of qualifications have children with the best school results at 11, 14 and 16.
The research highlights policy opportunities for future governments to reduce the achievement gaps between children from different family backgrounds.
Professor Ermisch explained:
“The educational system is likely to be the most widely used and most acceptable policy tool we have for equalizing life chances. Our analysis of England suggests that more equal access to good secondary schools (e.g. through lottery allocation) could make a contribution but as long as there is such a wide variation in school quality, such a policy would be resisted by better off parents, because some would be forced to send their children to inferior schools.”
An alternative policy would be a levelling up of school quality, which would require a significant investment of resources in order to create a level playing field for all children to fulfil their potential. Further policy debate might question if the better quality schools attract pupils from similar backgrounds of parental academic achievements, creating aspirational peer groups. They may also be staffed by teachers with higher levels of qualifications. Parents may also be more involved in shaping the quality of the better schools, through effective governance and higher levels of volunteering.
Professor Ermisch states:
“In the end we will never be able to eradicate the difference in child outcomes based on their family’s socio- economic status, but there seems to be scope for policy to reduce barriers to intergenerational mobility.”
The research used data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People, following the progress of children born in 1989-90 and their results in SATs test at 11 and 14 and GCSE results at 16. Similar data from other European countries, the USA, Australia and Canada was analysed to produce a comparison of achievement during secondary schooling.
Notes to Editors
From Parents to Children – The Intergenerational Transmission of Advantage edited by John Ermisch, Markus Jäntti, Timothy M. Smeeding, and published by the Russell Sage Foundation and the Sutton Trust, questions whether economic inequality in one generation leads to inequality of opportunity in the next, using data from ten countries with differing levels of inequality.
For further information please contact Louise Clarke Cullen on 01206 873087 and 07771 792393 or e-mail: lcullen@essex.ac.uk