Ethnicity and Achievement

Patterns and Trends

• Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students do worse, Indians and Chinese do best.
• White students are close the national average (though this may because there is such a high proportion of them) 
• Among black students girls do better, but among chinese Asians girls do better.
• Working class black girls do better than working class white girls. 

Out of School Factors 

1. Cultural Factors and Attainment (LF)

a) Language

• In some Asian households English is not the first language used. The PSI study found that the lack of fluency in English was a significant problem for some groups. Amongst men almost all of them spoke fluent English, however amongst women about a fifth of them did not. 
• Gillborn and Mirza point out that the very high attainment rate of Indian pupils suggests that language is not a barrier to success. 

b) Family Life

• Many writers suggest that the nature of family life affects levels of attainment among ethnic minorities. 
• Driver and Ballard found that South Asian parents tend to have very high educational aspirations for their children, even if they have no education themselves. 
• Gillborn and Mirza argue that research shows that African-Caribbean pupils receive greater encouragement to…