How can we navigate a path to educational equity?
New research by Loic Menzies, a researcher and policy specialist working with The Assessment Network at Cambridge, has outlined a fresh vision for how to navigate the deep challenges that stand in the way of educational equity.
The research report, published in April 2024 and titled ‘Mapping the Way to Educational Equity’, acknowledges that children and young people will need differing amounts of educational support if they are to achieve the ‘capability’ of ‘writing their own life story,’ given the different circumstances they grow up in. Consequently, an equitable distribution of educational support does not necessarily involve everyone receiving the same support, and policymakers should target their support in a way that responds to need, rather than distributing resources in cookie-cutter fashion.
The report draws together insights that emerged from eighteen months of roundtables and webinars convened by The Assessment Network. Over 400 people engaged in the project, including guests at in-person roundtables in Cambridge; webinar participants from around the world; and over 20 policy experts and civil servants who attended an afternoon of discussions at the Blavatnik School of Government in Oxford – held in partnership with the Government Outcomes Lab. Participants included school and trust leaders, senior civil servants, youth workers, charity leaders, academics and the Children’s Commissioner.
The achievements of students on the margins risk being misunderstood
Menzies argues that current approaches to data and assessment fail to reveal a true picture of whether an educational system is working equitably. A preoccupation with averages and arbitrary thresholds can gloss over the achievements of some young people, for example those with profound Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), many of whom have conditions that make it unlikely they will achieve success on traditional measures.
The invisibility of some young people’s achievements means stand-out successes and glaring system failures can go unnoticed. Moreover, ignoring information about young people at the margins hampers policymakers’ decision-making and the possibility of good practice being spread, and underperformance tackled.
Better data infrastructure is needed
The report highlights significant gaps in the UK’s data infrastructure, citing research by the charity Action for Children showing that only 40% of local authorities were able to provide information on children receiving ‘early help’ over the last five years. Blind spots like these mean vulnerable pupils are falling through the gaps.
Adequate data regarding the support children are receiving in different parts of the UK is crucial if policymakers are to address needs across the country. This should include improved links between different datasets spanning education, employment, social services and health. The report therefore welcomes The Children’s Commissioner’s calls for a unique child identifier and the development of new longitudinal datasets.
The labour market is an important component in understanding educational outcomes
The labour market has a washback effect on educational engagement. Yet discussions about educational equity often take place in isolation from discussions about labour market opportunities.
The report highlights research from the Social Mobility Commission showing that in some parts of the country, the availability of well-paid, ‘knowledge economy’ jobs allows disadvantaged young people who do well at school to translate their achievements into congruent careers and salaries, without having to leave their local area. This contrasts with other parts of the country where opportunities are scarcer, leading many young people to adjust their expectations and aspirations.
Listening to young people’s perspectives is invaluable
Young people’s ability to contribute to professionals’ understanding of their abilities and needs, or to shape the provision they access, is often underestimated. The structures and processes that underpin information-sharing in the education and youth sector need considerable reform, but an overly technical focus should not be allowed to undermine young people’s own agency.
Conversations with young people about the data that has been collected on them can reveal unexpected interpretations that pave the way to better-informed responses.
Cross-sectoral approaches likeliest to produce meaningful results
‘Mapping the Way to Educational Equity’ emphasises the need to look beyond schools and across different realms of public policy when seeking to improve educational outcomes. Young people’s exam results partly reflect school outcomes, but other factors set the scene and have a profound influence, shaping the challenges schools must help pupils overcome. Looking at what is going on in schools is therefore only the first step in any investigation into identifying and addressing disparities in academic – and life – outcomes.
Loic Menzies
Loic Menzies
Long-term funding and sustained relationships are essential
The report notes that too often, time and energy are poured into databases and processes to patch over lack of continuity. Yet these are no substitute for long-term relationships with communities and local organisations. Too often, established relationships are left to perish and invaluable information and trust is destroyed.
Overall funding levels are currently inadequate to ensure continuity. Nevertheless, problems also flow from flawed procurement and contracting processes – and these problems can be addressed right now. Relational contracting, for example, offers one way of hard-wiring relationships and continuity into funding agreements.
“Decisions about funding should give far more weight to the value of continuity, ‘costing-in’ the relationships that are at stake and the resilience that depends on them. Valuing ‘relational capital’ and ‘continuity of care’ more would force policymakers to rethink their habit of throwing one of the sector’s greatest assets on the bonfire.”
When it comes to educational equity, many obstacles are the products of previous and current policies which are not immutable. Taking a more expansive view of education – and what might contribute to it – points towards highly consequential obstacles to educational equity, such as housing, maternal health, and poverty. There is an opportunity cost to constantly focusing on school factors rather than these.
Ultimately, dismantling the obstacles to educational equity should involve a cross-societal mission to transform childhood.
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