A new study finds that the crucial three years between the ages of 11 and 14 are when talented children from low-income families fall behind their more affluent classmates at school.
The study followed high-achieving children from the lowest and highest income families from age 5 and found that they progressed at similar rates through the first year of middle school.
But by the time the two groups were 16 and taking GCSE or equivalent exams, pupils from more affluent groups were much more likely to achieve top grades and take A-levels than their lower-income peers.
The researchers found that after the early stages of secondary education, students from low-income families were more likely to have contact with police, low self-esteem, and negative attitudes toward education.
“The failure to fully utilise the early potential of this group is likely to be the main reason why the UK has not become a more socially mobile society,” concludes the study by researchers at University College London (UCL).
“Unfortunately, between the ages of 11 and 14 it appears that things start to go wrong for the most able children from low-income families,” said Professor John Jae-rim, lead author of the study.
“These are the kids who are best placed to do well in school, break glass ceilings and increase diversity in professions. But how can we be a socially mobile society if so many of our kids are not able to achieve top results in school?”
Experts say: Working Paper The study by Jerim and Maria Carvajal provided evidence that disparities in family income and lack of support for adolescents have an “insidious and cumulative effect.”
Iram Shirazi, professor of child development education at the University of Oxford, said: “Cutting funding for youth services, the third sector and local authorities, and rising poverty are having a negative impact on children.”
Steve Strand, professor of education at Oxford University, said the study revealed “the important role of peer groups in adolescence”, including in relation to bad behaviour, poor mental health and low self-esteem.
“To me, this shows the vital importance of policies at the community and neighbourhood level, and the supports and services that have been taken away from our poorest communities through decades of local government budget cuts,” he said.
the study, Funded by the Nuffield Foundationtracked the primary and secondary schooling outcomes of 389 “highly able” five-year-olds from the poorest 25% of families in the UK. They then looked at the same outcomes for 1,392 highly able five-year-olds from the richest 25% of families, using data from both UK groups. Millennium Cohort Study Children born between 2000 and 2002.
The study found a “clearly rapid decline in the academic performance of high-ability low-income children” between the ages of 11 and 14. This coincides with other differences emerging, including a “significant” deterioration in behaviour and mental health, and by age 17, being more likely to have been stopped, cautioned or arrested by police than their higher-income peers.
Only 40% of children from low-income backgrounds achieved an A or above in their exams at the age of 16, compared with 65% from higher-income backgrounds. Differences in exam results led to fewer children from low-income backgrounds taking A-levels.
