Interactions between contexts: effects on pupil attainment during school transition
This project will be undertaken in 2007.
For more information on this project, please contact Kathryn Duckworth.
Individuals live and learn in multi-faceted and related contexts and these contexts interact. The interactions of these contexts are an important feature of the environments in which policy must be delivered and so understanding and evaluation of these interactions are key. This project will provide evidence on the way schools and families interact.
This study will also provide evidence on an important aspect of the inter-generational returns to education, namely the capability to support children through the school transition. The transition between primary and secondary school is an important point at which the family setting interacts with changing school contexts possibly, but not necessarily, supporting pupil advancement. Other contexts are also important at this time, particularly peer groups and neighbourhoods.
Family background interacts with schooling in important ways:
- Working well together to support educational progression.
- Operating in opposition.
- Reinforcing negative outcomes.
WBL is studying these interactions and considering their importance for the attainment and engagement of young people and the wider benefits that follow.
This project considers the relative importance of schools, families and other contexts as predictors of pupil attainment over the transition to secondary school. It assesses the prevalence and value of different configurations of contexts and examines how parents' education helps families moderate the effects of risky environments.
The project will draw on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) using the developing data on children's IQ and school engagement as key outcomes both before and after the transition to secondary school. Family background is an important determinant of these pre- and post-transition outcomes, schools also play an important role.
This project assesses the effects of family education and parental engagement in children's learning as key factors explaining the outcomes. It also builds in school effects, particularly teachers' attitudes and motivations and the levels of peer attainment and engagement.
The study considers the change in outcomes as the dependent variable and contemplates the features of the family, primary and secondary schools that support positive transitions, focusing again on family education and parental engagement in children's learning. Data funded by the DCSF on parental engagement in secondary school choice is of particular use in this area.
