Class Differences in Achievement

• Children from middle class families on average perform better + achievement gap widens as children get older.
• Children from middle class do better at GCSE, stay longer in full time education and take most places at university.
• Middle class families can afford private schools (higher standard of education?). For example, average class sizes are less than half of those in state schools. 
• Private schools only educate 7% of Britain's children and account for almost half of the places taken at elite universities (e.g. Oxford).

Internal Factors - factors within schools and the education system. (e.g. interactions between the student and teacher)

External Factors - factors outside the education system. (e.g. influence of the home)

• By the age of 3, children from disadvantaged backgrounds are already up to one year than those from more priviliged homes.
• The basic 'cultural equipment'includes things such as language, self-discipline, reasoning skills and is aquired through primary socialisation in the family.
• CD theorists: many working class families fail to socialise children adequately. 3 main aspects of CD: language, parents' education and working class subculture. 

Language:

•  Hubbs-Tait et al (2002): cognitive performance improves where parents use challenging + evaluative language. Less educated parents: simple descriptive statements.
• Feinstein: educated parents use praise.
• Bereiter + Engelmann (1966): language in lower class homes is deficient (gestures, single words etc.). 
• Speech codes Bernstein (1975): restricted code (limited vocab, gramatically simple, context bound, descriptive not analytic). Elaborated code (wider vocab, more complex sentences, more abstract ideas and context free)
• Education uses elaborated code putting middle class children at an advantage.

Parents' Education:

• Douglas (1964): working less parents place less value on education. Less amibtious, take less interest and less encouraging. Feinstein (2008): middle class parents tend to be better educated and more able to socialise children properly.
• Parenting Style: educated parents consistent discipline and high expectations. Less educated: harsh/inconsistent discipline - no independence+self control.
• Parents' educational behaviours: educated parents read to children, teach them things such as numbers, letters and help with homework. Have better relationships with teachers. Visit places like museums and libraries. 
• Use of income: Bernstein + Young (1967): middle class mothers more likely to invest in educational toys, books + activities. Can also afford more nutritious food. 
• Class, income and parental education: Feinstein notes that parental education has an influence on children's achievement in its own right, regardless of class or income.

Working-class Subculture:

• Lack of parental interest in children's education reflects the subculture values of the WC. 
• Subculture: a group whose attitudes and values differ from those of the mainstream culture.
• Sugarman (1970): large sections of the WC have different goals, beliefs, attitudes and values from rest of society and this is why their kids fail. 4 key features as barrier to achievement: fatalism, collectivism, immediaate gradification, present-time orientation. Middle class jobs are secure and require continuous individual advancement - ecourages ambition.
• Compensatory Education: aim to tackle CD by providing extra resources to schools and communities in deprived areas. Britain: Sure Start, a nationwide programme aimed at pre-school children and parents.
• The myth of CD: Keddie (1973): sees CD as a victim-blaming explanation. Argues that WC children are simply cultrually different, not deprived. Fail because they are put at a disadvantage by an education system dominated by MC values. Troyna and Williams (1986): the problem is the schools attitude towards the child's language. 'Speech hierarchy'. Blackstone and Mortimore (1994): WC parents work longer hours so cannot attend parents evenings. Might be put off by school's anti-WC atmosphere.

• Material Depviration - poverty and a lack of material necessities such as aqeduate housing
• Poverty closely linked to educational underachievement e.g. exclusion+truancy more likely from children from pooorer families. Nearly 90% of failing schools located in deprived areas. Flaherty (2004): money problems within family are a significant factor for younger children's non-attendance at school. WC families much more likely to have low incomes/inadequate housing. These factors affect children's education. 
• Poor Housing: overcrowding - harder to study, less room for educational activies, no space to do homework, disturbed sleep from sharing rooms, lack of space for safe play/exploration. Families in temporary accomodation may have to move more frequently - constant chages of schools and disrupted education. Greater risk of accidents. Cold/damp housing can cause ill health. More psychological distress, infections and accidents - more absences from school.
• Diet and Health: Howard (2001): young people from poorer homes have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals. Poor nutrition - more absences?, harder to focus. Also more likely to have emotional/behavioural problems - Wilkinson (1996): 10 year olds, the lower the rate of social class, the higher the rate of hyperactivity, anxiety and conduct disorder. Blanden+Machin (2007): children from low income families more likely to engage in 'externalising' behaviour e.g. fighting and tempter tantrums - disrupt education?

• Financial support and cost of education: lack of finances - children have to do without equipment and miss out on things like school trips. Bull (1980): refers to this as 'the cost of free schooling'.
• Tanner et al (2003): found that cost of items (e.g. transport, equiptment, uniforms) places heavy burden on poor families. Children from poor families may have to do with hand-me-downs, may result in feeling isolated, stigmatised or bullied. Flaherty: fear of stigmatisation may explain why 20% of those eligible for free school meals do not take up entitilement.
• Smith + Noble (1995): poverty as barrier to education by inability to afford private schooling/tuition. Lack of funds - children my need to work. Ridge: found that children in poverty often take on jobs such baby sitting, paper rounds and cleaning. Financial support Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) for students after 16 was abolished in 2011. 

• Fear of debt: attitudes towards debt may deter WC students from attending uni. Callender + Jackson (2005): WC students more debt adverse - see debt negatively. The most debt adverse students over 5 times less likely to apply than the most debt tolerant students. Increases in tuition fees may mean that it will further deter more WC students from applying. UCAS (2012): number of UK appicants fell by 8.6% in 2012 compared with the previous year. WC uni students are likely to recieve less financial support from families.
• Only 30% of uni students come from WC backgrounds but account for 50% of the total population.
• Reay (2005): WC students more likely to apply to local universties - live at home, save travel costs. Thus they have less opportunities to attend top universities. Also more likely to work to fund studies.
• Dropout rates higher for universities where poor students attend (e.g. 16.6% droupout at London Metropolitan, whereas only 1.5% at Oxford).
• The National Audit Office (2002): WC students spent twice as much time in paid work to reduce debts as MC students.

• Some children from poor families still succeed so MD is only part of the explanation.
• The values (cultural, political or religious) of the family may play a part in sustaining the child's motivation, even despite poverty. Feinstein: educated parents contribute positively to the child's achievement, regardless of income level.
• Mortimore + Whitty (1997): material inequalities have the greatest effect on achievement. 
• Robinson (1997): most effective way to boost achievement is to tackle child poverty.

Bourdieu (1984): both cutural and material factors contribute to educational achievement and are interrelated. 3 types of capital: economic capital, 'educational capital (qualifications), 'cultural capital'. 

• Cultural Capital: refers to the knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities of the MC. Bourdieu sees CC as a capital because like wealth it advatages the people who posses it. Like Feinstein, argues that through their socialisation, MC children acquire the ability to grasp, analyse and express abstract ideas - more likely to develop intellectual interests and know what the education system requires for success. MC children are at an advantage in school because these values are highly valued and rewarded with qualifications. Education system favours and transmits the dominant MC culture. WC children find that school devalues their culture as 'rough'+inferior - get the message that education is not for them and respond by truanting, leaving early or not trying.
• Educational and Economic Capital: MC children with CC are better equipped to meet the demands of the school curriculum and gain qualifications. Leech+Campos (2003) MC parents more likely to be able to afford a house in the catchment area of a school that is highly placed in the exam league tables - known as 'selection by mortgage' because it drives up the cost of homes near successful schools + excludes WC families.