Professor in the School of Education Nadia Siddiqui explains the disadvantage gap index and what can be done to reduce it.
The problem of the disadvantage gap – also known as the attainment gap – is a persistent one in education in England. It refers to how children from certain groups, such as those from poorer backgrounds, ethnic minorities or who have been in care, do worse at school than their peers.
It’s a central concern of the recent interim report of the ongoing review into England’s national curriculum, which points out that the current system is not working well for everyone.
The disadvantage gaps between groups can be measured in different ways. The more simplistic way is to consider outcome measures, such as exam results, in isolation.
For example, at the end of their primary schooling, eleven-year-olds in English state schools take standardised key stage assessments – SATs. These results are used to calculate the disadvantage gap index. The index ranks all pupils in the country and assesses the difference in the average position of disadvantaged pupils and others. It shows whether the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is widening or closing.
A disadvantage gap of zero would indicate that there is no difference between the average performance of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. According to the Department for Education’s figures for 2023-24, the disadvantage gap index at this level is 3.13 in children’s key stage scores. While it had been decreasing between 2011 and 2018, the gap rose to the highest level since 2012 in 2022.
For GCSEs, taken at age 16, the disadvantage gap index is 3.92. It has decreased slightly after widening in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
A more sophisticated analysis of the disadvantage gap can be made by comparing the rate of progress that children achieve through their schooling career. Children in English state schools take a baseline assessment when they first enter their reception year, and their progress from this point can be measured by comparing with their SATs key stage results in year six.
Ideally, all children would progress in their learning at the same rate. But research by one of us (Nadia Siddiqui) shows that pupils from persistently low socioeconomic groups do not progress at the same level as their counterparts.
A recent longitudinal research study – meaning that it has tracked the same participants over years – has shown that since the pandemic, there has been a very big impact on the reading and maths progress of primary school children from poorer backgrounds.
At secondary level, progress can be measured by comparing children’s progress from their SATs at the end of primary school with their GCSE exam results. This measure is called “progress 8”. It indicates how much a secondary school has helped pupils progress from their point of entry at year seven, when compared to a government-calculated expected level of improvement.
The progress 8 measure focuses on the progression children make from their starting points, as opposed to fixating only on the end points in children’s learning.
The government uses this measure not to compare individuals, but rather schools to see how much value has been added by each school relative to other schools. But it also measures the progress of key groups, such as children receiving free school meals or of different ethnicities.
The latest data shows that pupils from poorer backgrounds – those eligible for free school meals – made less progress than their peers. This was the case in every ethnic group.
In the last few decades, a number of education policies have been introduced to narrow the disadvantage gap determined by household poverty.
Direct funding to improve educational targets is a popular approach and has been adopted in countries across the world. This means schools receive additional funding for admitting disadvantaged pupils. This money should be spent on evidence-informed interventions for improving educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils.
Since 2010, schools in England have been incentivised by pupil premium funding to invest directly in the academic learning of disadvantaged pupils if they are not reaching expected levels. Schools receive funding for each pupil who is, or has been, eligible for free school meals, and for those who have been in care.
Pupil premium funding has changed the pattern of intake of disadvantaged pupils by schools. Segregation of poorer and wealthier pupils, in which pupils from poorer households are clustered in particular schools, has reduced. Schools now take more of a mix of children from poorer and wealthier backgrounds.
This is good because mixed schools create fairer and more inclusive societies where pupils are better equipped to succeed in diverse environments. What’s more, the relative disadvantage gap has slightly improved for pupils at primary school.
The evidence on interventions for disadvantaged pupils is still evolving. For practical reasons, approaches to improving the academic disadvantage gap are mainly applied at school level.
However, in some places, area-based funding schemes, which channel funding to selected regions of particular high poverty, have been introduced. Our research is exploring the extent to which this may be a feasible way to narrow the disadvantage gap.
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