Tackling educational inequality - CentreForum

Tackling educational inequality
But what is more significant than the correlation between SEN and
low attainment is the clear evidence of a strong relationship between
SEN and socioeconomic background. In 2006, pupils with SEN were
more than twice as likely to be eligible for free school meals as those
without.
It is possible to isolate the link between special educational needs and
deprivation by breaking down different types of SEN. Research has
found that Moderate Learning Difficulty and Behavioural, Emotional and
Social Difficulties categories are the two types of need most strongly
associated with deprivation. Together, they account for over half of
pupils with SEN provided for by School Action Plus (those pupils requiring
specialist support for their learning difficulties) or with a statement.
Deprived pupils with special educational needs are 2 to 2.4 times as
likely to have moderate learning difficulties or emotional and social difficulties,
compared with pupils with SEN overall. 18 Many pupils with SEN,
perhaps the majority, are therefore likely to have underlying educational
needs that directly relate to deprivation. 19
Figure 19: Correlation between FSM and SEN in London
secondary schools, 2005
80
% of pupils with SEN
(with and without statements)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
R 2 =0.3765
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Source: DfES, London Challenge, 2006
% of pupils known to be eligible for FSM
Ethnicity
As figure 20 shows, Indian and East Asian pupils have persistently
outperformed all other ethnic groups, including White British pupils at
GCSE.
However, the inclusion of some rather broad ethnic groupings in this
chart tends to oversimplify the real picture. A breakdown of such
28