Department for Education written question – answered at on 5 July 2021.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps is he taking to measure the educational attainment gap.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of changes in the level of the educational attainment gap.
The Government recognises the challenges that the COVID-19 outbreak has caused for young people’s education, particularly for disadvantaged pupils. Schools continue to receive additional funding through the pupil premium, worth over £2.5 billion in 2021/22, to help them support their disadvantaged pupils.
To assess the education attainment gap, the Department has developed a Disadvantage Gap Index. The index shows that, between 2011 and 2019, the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils narrowed by 13% at age 11 and 9% at age 16.
The Department also commissioned Renaissance Learning to provide a baseline assessment of education loss and catch-up needs for pupils in schools in England and to monitor progress over the course of the year. We estimate that in the second half of the autumn term the gap in education loss between disadvantaged pupils and their more affluent peers remains at around half a month.
Yes1 person thinks so
No0 people think not
Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.