With the publication of A-level, GCSE and SATs results there's been much discussion about the impact of being in school - but how has being out of school for the summer affected the class achievement gap?
The summer holidays, according to sociologists from Johns Hopkins University (recently quoted in an article in the New York Times), are a key compounder of the class achievement gap. Whilst middle class pupils consolidate and extend their learning, low-income pupils slip significantly behind. This type of finding is very significant for the New Labour education project which is based on the premise that the best way to solve socio-economic inequality is through schooling. Moreover, it is significant in light of the government’s declared 'zero tolerance' for deprivation as an influence on performance. The improvement drive under New Labour has involved disallowing background as a reason for underperformance. Admirable as the goal may be, trying to negate the impact of socio-economic background has, amongst other things, meant trying to get schools to do the impossible. However, the main problem with Blair's optimism over the equalising potential of schools is that it is not only naïve it leaves home life disadvantage un-tackled. In this sense such a ‘myopic’ focus on education has institutionalised the issue of socio-economic inequality and monopolised the solution. Rather than continually increasing the time children spend in school, a greater focus on tackling root inequality via family-related policy would be more effective. The difficulty is that doing so now would mean the New Labour government admitting a certain level of defeat. Admitting that though education holds enormous potential it cannot be treated as a single magic wand, would defy the very principle of the government’s reforms in education. However, there is a desperate need to start doing so when past failure has forfeited addressing the causes of inequality. If we are to properly address the achievement gap, we need to ensure that we don’t idealise the impact of schooling and re-acknowledge the impact of home-life – in order to concentrate on tackling the disadvantage itself.