English language acquisition and educational attainment at the end of primary school

This paper analyses the national key stage 2 test results for 2300 11‐year‐old pupils in an inner London LEA. A range of concurrent pupil background data was also collected, including whether pupils spoke English as an additional language (EAL), and if so, their stage of fluency in English. EAL pupils at the early stages (1–3) of developing fluency had significantly lower KS2 test scores in all subjects than their monolingual peers. However, EAL pupils who were fully fluent in English achieved significantly higher scores in all KS2 tests than their monolingual peers. The negative association with attainment for the early stages of fluency remained significant after controls for a range of other pupil characteristics, including age, gender, free school meal entitlement, stage of special educational need and ethnic group, although these factors effectively explained the higher attainment of the ‘fully fluent’ group. We conclude that EAL is not itself a good guide to levels of attainment, and a measure of stage of English fluency is necessary to interpret associations with test performance. Alternative measures which focus only on the very early stages of English proficiency, such as the QCA ‘language in common’ steps, are inadequate to assess the impact of bilingualism for all but the very earliest learners of English. Given the uneven distribution of EAL pupils across the country, those schools and local education authorities with high concentrations of pupils in the early stages of learning English are likely to be adversely affected in school achievement and attainment tables. The policy implications for national data collection and for the use of such data are considered.     

Pupil mobility,attainment and progress in secondary school

This paper is the second of two articles arising from a study of the association between pupil mobility and attainment in national tests and examinations in an inner London borough. Our first article examined the association of pupil mobility with attainment and progress during primary school. It concluded that pupil mobility had little impact on performance in national tests at age 11, once pupils’ prior attainment at age 7 and other pupil background factors such as age, sex, special educational needs, stage of fluency in English and socio‐economic disadvantage were taken into account. The present paper reports the results for secondary schools (age 11–16). The results indicate that pupil mobility continues to have a significant negative association with performance in public examinations at age 16, even after including statistical controls for prior attainment at age 11 and other pupil background factors. Possible reasons for the contrasting results across school phases are explored. The implications for policy and further research are discussed.     

Pupils’ attitudes towards foreign-language learning and the development of literacy skills in bilingual education

The study investigated the effects of bilingual teaching on the development of children's literacy skills and attitudes towards language learning. In the bilingual classes 20% of the instruction was given in English. Pupils’ literacy skills in the bilingual classes were significantly better than in the monolingual classes. When observing pupils who started first grade with either a poor or an excellent level of school readiness, there was no significant difference between bilingual and monolingual groups. In addition, the pupils in bilingual classes showed significantly more positive attitudes towards foreign-language learning than the pupils in monolingual classes.     

Pupil mobility,attainment and progress in primary school

This article presents an analysis of the association between pupil mobility and educational attainment in the 2002 national end of Key Stage 2 (KS2) tests for 11‐year‐old pupils in an inner London education authority. The results show that pupil mobility is strongly associated with low attainment in the end of key stage tests. However, the negative association with pupil mobility is reduced by half when account is taken of other pupil background factors known to be related to educational attainment (such as special educational need and socio‐economic disadvantage), and is eliminated entirely when account is also taken of pupils' prior attainment as indicated by end of KS1 test scores at age 7. Thus there is no indication that changing school has a negative impact on educational progress during primary school. Pupils who join their school during KS2 from other schools in England are more likely to be ‘at risk’ of low attainment due to higher levels of socio‐economic disadvantage, a greater need for support in relation to English as an additional language, a higher incidence and greater severity of special educational needs and pre‐existing low attainment at the end of KS1. A key factor in understanding the relationship between mobility and attainment is the reason for mobility. One‐third of mobile pupils had arrived from schools outside of England, often as refugees, asylum seekers or economic migrants, and these pupils accounted for the major part of the effect ascribed to ‘pupil mobility’. The low attainment of these pupils is the result not of ‘changing school’ but of a broad range of factors including substantial cultural, educational and social adjustment.     

Screens of disorder: English cinema’s representation of teachers’ responses to challenges to their authority in the 1960s

Change across wider English society in the 1960s was characterised by a managed and relatively consensual social liberalism. There was a discernible cultural shift toward greater personal and sexual freedom. Within education in England, a revisionist approach sought to extend traditional education to a wider constituency, in particular incorporating the sometimes disaffected and unskilled working class. This context presented new challenges for 1960s teachers in their relationships with pupils. Through the 1950s and 1960s, English cinema portrayed England’s changing teacher–pupil relations. This article examines the nature of change in teacher–pupil relations, with particular regard to its impact upon teachers’ authority. English cinema’s representation is located within English societal change in the 1960s in relation to youth culture, education and attitudes to authority.

Several themes are identified. Teacher status appeared to contribute rather less to 1960s teachers’ authority and teachers’ personalities rather more. 1960s teacher–pupil relations were somewhat volatile. Relationships began to take place beyond the school gates. Films depicted greater diversity in teachers’ strategies to maintain their authority, with some teachers making concessions to pupils to preserve harmonious relations. A more prominent approach was teachers’ still more firm imposition of traditional discipline, attempting to hold back the tide of increased pupil hostility in classrooms, which more frequently featured the particular challenges posed by girls.

The analysis has relevance beyond England and beyond the 1960s. It explores the variety and fragility of teacher authority, highlights the pressure that maintaining discipline places upon individual teachers and recognises the appeal of classroom conservatism.     

Acquiring reading and vocabulary in Dutch and English: the effect of concurrent instruction

To investigate the effect of concurrent instruction in Dutch and English on reading acquisition in both languages, 23 pupils were selected from a school with bilingual education, and 23 from a school with education in Dutch only. The pupils had a Dutch majority language background and were comparable with regard to social-economic status (SES). Reading and vocabulary were measured twice within an interval of 1 year in Grade 2 and 3. The bilingual group performed better on most English and some of the Dutch tests. Controlling for general variables and related skills, instruction in English contributed significantly to the prediction of L2 vocabulary and orthographic awareness at the second measurement. As expected, word reading fluency was easier to acquire in Dutch with its relatively transparent orthography in comparison to English with its deep orthography, but the skills intercorrelated highly. With regard to cross-linguistic transfer, orthographic knowledge and reading comprehension in Dutch were positively influenced by bilingual instruction, but there was no indication of generalization to orthographic awareness or knowledge of a language in which no instruction had been given (German). The results of the present study support the assumption that concurrent instruction in Dutch and English has positive effects on the acquisition of L2 English and L1 Dutch.     

The Effect of Group‐level Influences on Pupils' Progress in Reading

This article investigates the existence or otherwise of group‐level effects on progress in reading. ‘Administrative’ data, i.e. data already produced by a local education authority (LEA) for its own purposes, was combined to give two primary‐age cohorts, each of the order of 2500 pupils, in one medium‐sized LEA in the south‐east of England. After allowing for pupil and global school‐level effects, a wide variety of possible aggregated group‐level effects (AGLEs) was investigated. Different functions of pupil score were investigated. Mean score and pupil turnover, especially the latter, were the most important AGLEs on attainment, and these had greater effects for older pupils.     

National Cultural Values and Their Role in Learning: A comparative ethnographic study of state primary schooling in England and France

This ethnographic study attempts to define English and French cultural and educational values in primary school. It is maintained that pupil attitudes to education are derived from pupils' sociocultural backgrounds and that pupil attitudes predispose pupils to learning. Pupils interpret both what and how they learn through the medium of the culture to which they belong. English and French educational values are identified through classroom observation, teacher discourse and pupil perceptions. The comparative approach allows the contrastive characteristics inherent in each country's culture to emerge. It is argued that pupil understanding of such educational values as authority, thought or 'la pensee', control over learning and educational goals and how to achieve them are related to national culture and that they have an effect on pupil motivation. The paper is both an example of and an exploration into how culture may affect learning. It suggests that cultural values are more significant for learning than pedagogical styles as it argues that underlying educational values give meaning to styles of pedagogy.     

How Large are Secondary School Effects in Northern Ireland?

ABSTRACT

This study is concerned with estimates of secondary school effect size in Northern Ireland. Utilising data from a random sample of the region's schools, four indices of pupil achievement variation in public examinations are employed. These outcome measures are (i) overall examination achievement ‐ a composite weighted measure ‐together with achievement in General Certificate of Education examinations in (ii) English, (iii) Mathematics and (iv) Chemistry. Examinations of this type are taken, typically, by pupils aged 16 years (the statutory leaving age), at the end of their fifth year of secondary education.

Using a two‐level hierarchical linear regression model, the paper considers variation in school effect size by outcome criterion. Variation is measured in standard deviation units and in terms of the proportion of achievement variance “explained” by schools after adjustment for pupil‐intake differences. Comparisons are made with recent findings for Scotland and for England.     

15‐year‐old Pupils’ and their Teachers’ Values,and their Beliefs about the Values of an Ideal Pupil

The paper reports a study on the values of 15‐year‐old pupils and their teachers, and also their beliefs about the values of an ideal pupil. The sample included Finnish comprehensive school pupils (n = 406, mean age 15.3 years) and their teachers (n = 124). The study centred on two questions concerning: (1) what values are important to pupils and teachers; and (2) what pupils and teachers imagine an ideal pupil in their school values. Values were measured according to Schwartz's value questionnaire, which includes 57 single values grouped into 11 general value types. The subjects were asked to fill in the questionnaire twice. Firstly they were asked to consider what values were important to them as guiding principles in their life. Then they were asked to answer the questions as they imagined an ideal pupil in their own school would. The results showed that the most important value types were similar for pupils and teachers; for example, both groups valued benevolence and universalism. The differences between pupils’ and teachers’ images of an ideal pupil, in contrast, were more distinct. Pupils imagined an ideal pupil to be obedient, polite, capable, intelligent, ambitious, wise and respectful of parents and elders, while teachers imagined an ideal pupil to be honest and broad‐minded, valuing self‐respect, family security, true friendship and meaning in life. The results are discussed in terms of the general aims of curricula and the key values of schools.     

The Catholic School Ethos: its effect on post‐16 student academic achievement

Recent concern with the academic performance of schools has led a number of local education authorities to develop systems for measuring the ‘added value’ that can be attributed to particular institutions in their control. An analysis of data published by one Midlands shire county on the performance of A level candidates in 1992 raised questions about the relative levels of academic achievement of pupils who remained within the Catholic school system compared to those who transferred to local authority institutions for their full‐time education after the age of 16. A small representative sample of students from a Catholic school who had transferred to a non‐Catholic sixth form college to take A level courses was interviewed. The students’ comments suggested they found significant differences in the college ethos compared to that of their previous Catholic school. Those findings together with the analysis or the available data from the local authority, raise issues that merit further detailed research.     

Design considerations for the autism spectrum disorder‐friendly Key Stage 1 classroom

There is a growing consensus that an appropriate classroom environment will aid the performance of the pupil with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There are, however, very few design guidelines available when considering ASD and the school environment. Such guidelines that do exist tend only to be in general terms. Therefore, this article seeks to highlight design considerations specifically for the ASD‐friendly Key Stage 1 (age five to eight) classroom. It will first highlight some of the challenges for those with autism spectrum disorder in a school environment and the triad of challenges faced by architects and designers when considering ASD‐friendly classroom design. It will then go on to describe the findings and results of a two‐year study carried out in conjunction with the ASD teaching staff of Northern Ireland's Southern Education and Library Board. These consist of 16 specific design considerations for the Key Stage 1 ASD‐friendly classroom applicable to all classrooms for pupils between five and eight years of age.     

Developing attitude to science scales for use with children of ages from five to eleven years

This paper reports on the development stages of three attitudes to science and school scales for use with children aged from 5-11 years. The investigation is part of a project intended to improve pupil achievement in science in 16 schools in an English city. The base-line performance of the attitude scales with over 800 pupils is reported. Attitude sub-scales measure 'liking school', 'independent investigator', 'science enthusiasm', the 'social context' of science, and 'science as a difficult subject' with Cronbach Alpha reliabilities for the year groups varying from above 0.8 to below 0.7. For the sample, both boys' and girls' enthusiasm for science declines progressively with age alongside a similar decline in their perception that science is difficult.     

Inclusive practice? Supporting isolated bilingual learners in a mainstream school

This paper is based on action research carried out in a primary school in Scotland where few bilingual learners shared their home language with classmates or staff. It investigated the educational experiences of bilingual children in the early stages of primary school, in which there were often practical difficulties supporting isolated learners in using their home language in school. It tracked a cohort of isolated bilingual learners over a period of two years and considered how theories of support for bilingual learners can be applied to isolated learners. It identified two themes: support for new arrivals who are at the early stage of acquisition of English and how monolingual schools can show that they value home languages and promote bilingual skills. The research reveals techniques for tackling the very real social issue of bilingual learners in monolingual classrooms, a topic of currency in today’s climate. It engages with concepts of pupil difference, practices of social justice and inclusion, as well as consideration of a quality curriculum for all students. The study reflects on practical arrangements for new arrivals, working with parents unfamiliar with the education system and creating opportunities for pupils to use and share their home language within school.     

Raising the achievement of African heritage pupils: a case study of good practice in British schools

The aim of this paper is to investigate how pupils from black African backgrounds are helped to achieve high standards in schools and to identify the factors that contribute to the success of raising achievement. Two complementary methodological approaches were adopted, each contributing a particular set of data to the study. First, General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) empirical investigation was undertaken to draw lessons from the last seven years by examining in detail the attainment of black African pupils in the authority. This was followed by detailed case‐study research to illuminate how the complex interactions of context, organization, policy and practice helps generate effective practice in raising the attainment of black African pupils. Five case‐study schools were selected. A structured questionnaire was used to interview headteachers, staff, governors, parents and pupils to gather evidence of African heritage pupil achievement. The main findings of the research show that in all schools black African pupils are performing above national average, and in the case‐study schools 79% of black African pupils achieved five+ A*–C GCSEs compared to 48% nationally and 57% in the authority schools. The study has also identified a number of good practices in successful schools. Among the key features that contribute to the success of raising the achievement in the case‐study schools are: African parents value education very highly and respect the authority of schools; strong leadership; effective use of performance data for school self‐evaluation; diversity in the workforce; a highly inclusive curriculum that meets the needs of African heritage pupils; a strong link with the community; well coordinated support and guidance; good parental support and high expectation of their children; and teachers’ high expectation of African heritage pupils and a strong commitment to equal opportunities. The final section gives policy implications for school improvement.     

Reading and Culture: the Experience of some of our Bilingual Pupils

This article explores the nature of reading for meaning as it affects the reading abilities of secondary‐age bilingual pupils. It briefly discusses cultural schemata theories which seek to account for the influence of culture on the reading process, and links these to a school‐based study. This illustrates the importance of cultural determinants on the understanding of text and suggests possible strategies for overcoming potential textual difficulties.     

Secondary modern schools: are their pupils disadvantaged?

There are still 10 English local educational authorities (LEAs) that are wholly selective and a further 10 with some grammar and secondary modern schools. This article examines the academic performance of pupils in secondary modern schools and the funding of these schools using national data sets matching pupils' performance at Key Stage 2 and General Certificate of Education (GCSE) as well as data on funding from Section 52 statements. Students in secondary modern schools gained one less grade on average than equivalent students in comprehensive schools while grammar school pupils obtained five grades more. After taking account of the cost factors and grant entitlements that influence funding per pupil, secondary modern schools in the years 2000/01–2002/03 were funded around £80 less per pupil while grammar school pupils received over £100 more per pupil compared to comprehensive schools. Secondary modern schools were more likely to be in financial deficit than comprehensive and particularly grammar schools. Thus, students are academically disadvantaged by attending secondary modern schools, which in most selective LEAs do not receive sufficient additional funding to offset the depressing effects on attainment of the increased social segregation arising from a selective system.     

Analysis of the Effects of School Variables Using Multilevel Models

Multilevel models allow data to be analysed which are hierarchical in nature; in particular, data which have been collected on pupils grouped into schools. Some of the associated variables may be measured at the pupil level, and others at the school level. The use of multilevel models produces estimates of variances between schools and pupils, as well as the effects of background variables in reducing or explaining these variances. One data set which has been analysed relates to the national surveys of mathematics carried out in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In this case the basic unit of analysis was a pupil's performance in a group of items within one of 12 sub‐categories of maths. Each pupil tackled two such item groups (or sub‐tests) and thus a three‐level model was required, with the levels representing sub‐tests, pupils and schools. A number of background variables at both pupil and school levels were also measured, and interesting results were obtained when a multilevel model was fitted. The program used was a version of one developed by Professor H. Goldstein. A quite different data set related to pupils’ responses to a questionnaire survey about their reactions to their current course of study. The dependent variable was a measure of pupils’ satisfaction with the course derived from their responses, and other pupil level variables were also derived, relating to their school experiences and personal attributes. School level variables such as size and type of school were obtained from a schools data base. The program Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) was used to model these data, using only two levels. The two multilevel program used have different strengths and capabilities, but are related in terms of the kinds of models that can be fitted. Such models can lead to greater insights into the relationships between school and pupil level variables, and their influence on pupil results or attitudes.     

Testing the validity of value‐added measures of educational progress with genetic data

Value‐added measures of educational progress have been used by education researchers and policy‐makers to assess the performance of teachers and schools, contributing to performance‐related pay and position in school league tables. They are designed to control for all underlying differences between pupils and should therefore provide unbiased measures of school and teacher influence on pupil progress, however, their effectiveness has been questioned. We exploit genetic data from a UK birth cohort to investigate how successfully value‐added measures control for genetic differences between pupils. We use raw value‐added, contextual value‐added (which additionally controls for background characteristics) and teacher‐reported value‐added measures built from data at ages 11, 14 and 16. Sample sizes for analyses range from 4,600 to 6,518. Our findings demonstrate that genetic differences between pupils explain little variation in raw value‐added measures but explain up to 20% of the variation in contextual value‐added measures (95% CI = 6.06% to 35.71%). Value‐added measures built from teacher‐rated ability have a greater proportion of variance explained by genetic differences between pupils, with 36.3% of their cross‐sectional variation being statistically accounted for by genetics (95% CI = 22.8% to 49.8%). By contrast, a far greater proportion of variance is explained by genetic differences for raw test scores at each age of at least 47.3% (95% CI: 35.9 to 58.7). These findings provide evidence that value‐added measures of educational progress can be influenced by genetic differences between pupils, and therefore may provide a biased measure of school and teacher performance. We include a glossary of genetic terms for educational researchers interested in the use of genetic data in educational research.     

Co‐operation in the Countryside: small primary school clusters

This paper examines the role and significance of co‐operation (clustering) between small primary schools in rural areas across England and Wales. By increasing the range of resources available and enlarging staff and pupil peer groups, clustering can counter many of the challenges that confront curriculum delivery in small schools. However, effective inter‐school liaison can be impeded by fears surrounding the loss of individual school autonomy and logistical barriers caused by the nature of rural localities. Just as significantly, reductions in local authority support for cluster schemes combined with increased incentives to compete for pupils may be curtailing useful co‐operation. Findings from a sample of small‐school headteachers suggest, however, that despite recognition of these detrimental pressures, clustering is likely to remain central to a wider set of local coping strategies which are making a significant contribution to the viability of rural education provision.