Social mobility determined early in life

The Sutton Trust recently released the results of its research, carried out in partnership with the Russell Sage Foundation and the Pew Economic Mobility Project, on educational inequalities and their implications for future education and earnings mobility. Research was done in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Italy.

It was found that in the UK and the States less advantaged children are not as ready for school as more advantaged children. This was not so much the case in the other countries research took place in. In France and Denmark this is addressed through universal early childhood education, weakening the association of parental status (i.e. their level of education) with child outcomes (i.e. their school achievement or test scores).

It was also found that in England the differences in child outcomes continue up to university age and likely beyond. The case was similar in the US, Sweden and Germany, while Canada and Australia have the smallest disparities between academic achievements in young people with high and low educated parents.

In England, the achievement gap between more and less advantaged young people widens between the ages of 11 and 16, in other words, during secondary school. This was unique to England and was found to be mainly related to the positive association between the quality of secondary school and parents’ socio-economic status. Better educated parents are sending their children to better quality schools and so the gap widens.

So it seems that in the UK social mobility is determined early on and less advantaged young people have to make a strong push to avoid slipping into the achievement gap which widens when they start secondary school.  This could be closed if the quality of schools across the country was better regulated. How can it be right that the best schools are those attended by young people from advantaged backgrounds? Sure it’s peers that have the biggest influence on young people at secondary school, but does a poor peer support in a school mean teaching quality and support must also be worse? The UK needs to learn from some of the other countries involved in this study.

Some professional bodies are beginning to address issues of social mobility by encouraging all young people to consider professions that are dominated by the more advantaged (as monitored by TotalProfessions.com) but more work needs to be done. What do you think? Could the professional bodies do more to support a more equal education system for our young people? Or should it be someone else?

If you’d like to learn more have a look at the full report. If you would like to share your thoughts and experiences confidentially, please email editor@parnglobal.com 

12th January

Amy Hannington, Editor of  TotalProfessions.com and Research Assistant at PARN.