1. (How) did New Labour narrow the achievement and participation gap? Geoff Whitty, Director Emeritus Institute of Education

2. 2 Outline of Presentation Access and Achievement in England The Pre-School Attainment Gap The Attainment and Participation Gap What contributed to any narrowing of the gap? Policies and Prospects post-2010

3. 3 Figure 1: Attendance at different types of university by socio- economic group Source: Machin et al.(2009) in Hills (2010)

4. 4 Figure 2: Average rank of test scores at 22, 42, 60 and 120 months, by SES of parents and early rank position Source: Feinstein (2003)

5. 5 Figure 3: Percentage of cohort achieving five good examination passes at age 16 by parents’ social class: 1988-2003 (%) Source: DfES (2006)

6. 6 Figure 4: Relationship between household deprivation and relative performance in examinations in core subjects Source: Cook (2011)

7. 7 Figure 5: “Gaps in educational performance have narrowed only very slightly despite significant investment” Source: HM Government (2010)

8. Figure 6: Participation rates of those from high and low socio- economic background and their gap Source: BIS (2009) 8

9. 9 Examples of New Labour Education Policies Class size reduction Education Action Zones Excellence in Cities National Strategies for Literacy and Numeracy More teaching assistants Improving school leadership training Enhancing teacher quality, e.g. Teach First Creation of specialist schools The London Challenge Autonomous Academy schools Personalisation, e.g. Reading Recovery Every Child Matters AimHigher

10. 10 What didn’t make a difference Class size reduction Education Action Zones Excellence in Cities Employment of teaching assistants

11. 11 What may have made a difference The National Strategies? Academies? Extended Schools? Reading Recovery? Teach First? The London Challenge? AimHigher?

12. Figure 7: Performance at GCSE by region Source: Ofsted (2012) 12

13. 13 What may have made a difference The National Strategies? Academies? Extended Schools? Reading Recovery? Teach First? The London Challenge? AimHigher? - or just ‘the economy, stupid’?

14. 14 Current Coalition Policies Key Conservative policies More Academies and Free Schools Traditional curriculum and examinations NB Tension between neo-liberal and neo-conservative elements of policy Key Liberal Democrat policies Pupil premium for disadvantaged students Learning and Teaching (‘What works’) Toolkit for teachers funded by Education Endowment Fund

15. Modelling Pedagogic Identities Classification Restricted Retrospective (Old conservative) Restricted Retrospective (Old conservative) Re-Centred State In any one case there can be opposition and collaborations between these positions in the arena of reform, alternatively, some positions may be illegitimate and excluded from the arena (Bernstein 2000) Differentiated De-Centred (Market) (Neo-Liberal) Differentiated De-Centred (Market) (Neo-Liberal) Integrated De-centred (Therapeutic) (Professionals) Integrated De-centred (Therapeutic) (Professionals) Selected Prospective (Neo-Conservative) Selected Prospective (Neo-Conservative) Diagram 1

16. 16 Questions and comments? g.whitty@ioe.ac.uk