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...achievement, context that acknowledges class, social and local factors, as well as the differential impacts of current educational policy, can true picture be obtained. Addressing the widespread concern in the Black community about education demands more than simplistically blaming either teacher racism or Black culture.
Keywords: 1988 Education Act, African-Caribbean, GCSE, Schools, Underachievement, YCS.
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Concern in the Black community about the underachievement of Black (1) children in British schools is widespread. Over the last few years, perhaps not a month has gone by when this concern has not surfaced in the media, particularly around the time when examination results are published, revealing disparities in attainment by gender and ethnicity.
Nor are these concerns recent. Over the last three decades or so, there have been a number of government inquiries and independent research reports into achievement. One of the most influential of these was the Swann Report, published in 1985. (2) The Committee of Inquiry into Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Groups, set up in 1979 under Anthony Rampton and, post-1981, Lord Swann, published an interim report West Indian Children in our Schools in June 1981. (3) Using figures derived from the School Leavers Survey (covering approximately half of the school leavers from ethnic minorities), this showed that in all CSE and GCE 'O' Level examinations, only 3 per cent of Black children obtained five or more higher grades compared to 18 per cent of Asians and 16 per cent of all other school leavers. The report concluded that West Indian children as a group were 'underachieving in relation to their peers'. In setting a comparative frame, based on ethnicity, for examining the educational performance of children, the Swann report initiated a trend in which the focus on that particular variable obscured other significant factors affecting, for good or ill, the educational performance of all groups of children in society. Moreover, what may be symptomatic has all too often been confused with what is diagnostic, leading to, at best, an over-simplistic and, at worst, a quasi-racist resort to cultural explanations for the differences in achievement.
The Youth Cohort Study
To gain a more nuanced picture of what is actually happening, however, it is necessary to examine the figures relating to educational performance and progress in more depth, over a continuous period of time, with regard to historical and class disadvantage, with regard to education policy (national and local) and with regard to each group's previous level of achievement. There is not space in the course of this piece to do more than indicate the significance of some of these factors. But the very first task is to examine the statistics themselves in more detail.
Over the last decade, researchers have relied on the data collected by the Youth Cohort Study of England and Wales (YCS). The YCS is the main source of survey information on the education, training and work experience of young people in England and Wales. (4) Its strength lies in the richness of data, including information about gender, ethnicity and social class and attainment at GCSE and progression beyond 16. Available from a single source over more than a decade, the YCS makes it possible to track the progress of young people. It is conducted biennially in the spring, two terms after children have completed their compulsory education at the age of 16. Hence the year of the survey reports on the examination performance for the preceding year.
There are some reservations about the YCS because, although its sample is large, when children are divided into numerous subgroups, the total number in any one category may be very small. Thus, apparently significant fluctuations from one year's sample to another may reflect a change among relatively few children. Therefore one has to be cautious about interpreting the results from any single year in isolation. Nonetheless, it is the best data available to chart broad changes over time.
In 1998, Demack et al presented an analysis of gender, ethnic and social class differences in GCSE results from 1988-93, using YCS data, and came to the conclusion that myths about underachievement persist when generalisations are made from results for averages. (5) They highlighted four findings from their analysis:
* While it was generally the case that some ethnic minority groups were performing less well than the white group, a number of ethnic minority groups had, on average, higher levels of attainment than the white group.
* While Bangladeshi children in Tower Hamlets had become the highest achievers in the borough, nationally this group had the lowest overall attainment levels.
* While school effectiveness research had focused on school differences, social class differences were the largest differences of all and the children of professional parents had the greatest advantage.
* While it was generally true that levels of attainment were rising overall, these improvements were not being spread equally. In some areas, there had been no improvement at all. The results for...
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