What do we know about Educational Disadvantage?
- 24th Oct 2024
- Jenni French
New analysis by SchoolDash for Gatsby summarises what we know already about educational disadvantage in England and shows that is more complex and multifaceted than traditionally discussed.
As the analysis shows, the current approach of defining disadvantage by focussing solely on Pupil Premium eligibility or using a geographical-based approach fails to capture the full spectrum of challenges faced by schools.
Key findings
Limitations of current measures
There are significant limitations of using Pupil Premium, or area-based approaches such as Education Investment Areas to define disadvantage as these measures fail to capture the spectrum of deprivation levels and other multiple forms of disadvantage such as housing, health, crime, or environment. The analysis shows that schools with identical Pupil Premium rates often serve dramatically different communities. On the surface, they appear to face the same level of disadvantage, the policy solutions to addressing the problem are unlikely to be the same for each of the schools.
This is the first part of our work with SchoolDash to look at how more nuanced metrics and measures to define disadvantage in state schools could be used to target policy interventions more effectively.
For the full analysis, by Timo Hannay, Founder, SchoolDash, visit: https://www.schooldash.com/blog-2410.html#20241024
Jenni French is Head of STEM in Schools at Gatsby
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