Research Report: Spending it Wisely - How Can Schools Use Their Resources to Help Poorer Pupils?
Charlotte Goddard
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
This study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, used data from the National Pupil Database to investigate which children in schools benefit most from having money spent on them and which groups of children benefit from different types of spending.
Authors Dr Birgitta Rabe, University of Essex, Professor Cheti Nicoletti, University of York
Published by The Economic and Social Research Council Centre on Micro-social Change, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, November 2014
Summary
The database contains information on 359,470 siblings who took GCSE examinations between 2007 and 2010.
The researchers looked at what would happen if different groups of pupils had an extra £1,000 spent on them every year. Looking at attainment, it found spending in secondary schools was most productive when focused on pupils doing well at the end of primary school. These pupils improved more when extra money was spent on them than those lagging behind.
The study looked at the impact of extra spending on children on free school meals, children with special educational needs, gifted and talented children, those with English as an additional language and a reference group of children who did not fit into any of these categories. The most striking result here was for children with special educational needs, who were shown to be the pupils who benefitted most from extra spending. The group comprised all children with special educational needs, not just those with statements, and found targeting them specifically made a real difference to attainment among both high and low achievers.
Pupils on free school meals, who were not eligible for the pupil premium in the period covered by the research, were found to have the least benefit from extra spending. This was particularly true of girls. Pupils singled out as gifted and talented tended to benefit no more than their peers when extra funding was focused on them. The research found school spending seems to have a greater effect on black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi children, the groups who perform worst in national tests at 11, than on white British children and those from mixed backgrounds and other ethnicities.
The report also looked at what type of spending makes the most difference to pupils. Spending the extra money on teachers helps most pupils, particularly those with higher scores at the end of primary school. Pupils with special educational needs get the most benefit from extra spending on teachers. Spending the money on support staff brings the most benefit to pupils on free school meals and those with English as an additional language, although others also benefit. This suggests these staff are used to support pupils who have been singled out for extra help, leaving teachers to deal with the rest of the class.
Spending the extra money on supply teachers had a negative effect on all pupil groups, particularly the less able. The researchers put this down to disruptions in planning and the relationship between pupil and teacher that can result from the use of supply teachers.
Implications for practice
Given pupils seem to benefit more from extra spending in secondary school when they are already doing well at primary school, the government should weight funding towards primary schools to help less-able pupils catch up before year 7, suggests the study.
Pupils with special educational needs should be taught by teachers and not by education support staff if they are to realise their potential, while the best way to help low-achieving pupils eligible for free school meals and those with English as an additional language is through well-trained and accountable teaching assistants.
Further reading
The Effect of School Resources on Test Scores in England, Dr Birgitta Rabe, University of Essex, Professor Cheti Nicoletti, University of York, July 2012. Past research by the same authors evaluating the effect of school expenditure on pupils' cognitive skills as measured by test scores at age 16.
Does Additional Spending Help Urban Schools? An Evaluation Using Boundary Discontinuities, Steve Gibbons, Sandra McNally, Martina Viarengo, London School of Economics, September 2011. An examination of how different funding levels affect schools in similar areas.
The Pupil Premium: How Schools are Spending the Funding Successfully to Maximise Achievement, Ofsted, 2013. A report drawing together effective practice and giving schools tools to analyse gaps in achievement and plan their actions.