Educational Attainment of White British Working Class Students

Sean Hayes – Independent Researcher and retired Local Government Educational Researcher and Performance Manager

Abstract

This was a mixed methods research project, which addressed the following questions:

• Are White Working Class students at greater risk of educational underperformance?
• Does RAISEonline serve a useful purpose as a research tool?
• What factors helped students to achieve success at GCSE above what they were predicted to achieve, given their background and prior attainment?
• How can these findings be successfully disseminated to schools?

The research was carried out in Greenwich Local Authority and there were three stages to the project.  Stage one was a comprehensive quantitative analysis of performance at all Key Stages carried out within one Local Authority (Greenwich) over three years.  Stage two was a qualitative study into the factors that proved to be important for some students from a deprived White British background who managed to achieve GCSE success, apparently against the odds.  Successful students were identified as having performed better than expected based on their estimated GCSE performance in the government’s data tool, RAISEonline.  Stage three considered how to make the research findings from the data analysis and on students’ resilience and self-regulation work for teachers in secondary schools.  The dissemination took place through tailored training sessions for middle leaders in secondary schools, particularly those teachers with a responsibility for assessment, student welfare and teaching and learning at Key Stage 4.  The training exercises were developed based on the research findings and were delivered by local authority staff with a responsibility for school improvement and research.