Conservative Education Society's Head of Research & Student Engagement, Danny Bowman, explores levels of achievement of 'hard to reach' students in the English academies system.
Executive Summary
The education system in England has experienced three epochs of reform since the Second World War. The three stages of reform have produced the tripartite, comprehensive and academies systems of education. These alternative structures diverge in their characteristics but have all been determined by ambitions to improve opportunities and outcomes for students. Central to the ambitions of representatives and non-political stakeholders has been the achievement of equality of opportunity within the education system. Indeed, countless stakeholders have stated that education is the only ‘silver bullet’ available to render intergenerational underachievement and enhance social mobility. The successes and failures of each of the three educational models have been examined across a range of academic fields. Yet, seldom have these examinations focused on the most hard-to-reach populations, making this an essential area for further exploration. This report has chosen to focus on the opportunities available to and attainment of hard-to reach students within the English academies system. A selection of indicators and variables were selected from secondary governmental data to measure the relationship between hard-to reach populations and educational outcomes. Using bivariate analysis methods, the opportunities available to hard-to-reach students and their attainment was compared against multi-academy trusts with the highest and lowest percentage of these populations. The results demonstrate that there was a strong correlation between the percentage of disadvantaged students in each multi-academy trust and the attainment of good educational outcomes. A more mixed set of outcomes was found for trusts with high percentages of SEN students. The data demonstrates the need for the government to build on previous work to improve opportunities and outcomes for hard-to-reach students.
Key Findings
- The academies system has been found to achieve mixed outcomes for hard-to-reach students.
- Multi-academy trusts with higher populations of disadvantaged students were found to achieve lower levels of attainment at the secondary level of education.
- Multi-academy trusts with higher populations of SEN students were found to achieve mixed outcomes at primary and secondary levels of education.
