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'Decade of failure’ to narrow disadvantage gap in schools

2 mins read Education Coronavirus
Government education policy has failed to narrow the gap in GCSE grades between rich and poor pupils over the last 10 years, a report has revealed.
Poorer students are around 1.6 grades behind wealthier peers at GCSE, research finds. Picture: Adobe Stock
Poorer students are around 1.6 grades behind wealthier peers at GCSE, research finds. Picture: Adobe Stock

The study found that students living in long term poverty trail their more affluent classmates by an average of 1.6 grades, the same gap as in 2011.

This disadvantage gap is far greater in further education, the report by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) found.

Students in 16-19 education are 3.1 grades on average behind their more affluent peers compared with 2.9 grades in 2019.

NEW: The disadvantage gap for 16-19 students grew in 2020, to equivalent of 3.1 A level grades.

This was driven by A level students gaining a whole grade more from teacher assessments than those taking qualifications such as BTECs.

Report: https://t.co/XOQcQIQ2vL @NuffieldFound pic.twitter.com/n54q2574QA

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