ABSTRACT
There is longstanding – and continuing – evidence that students from disadvantaged social backgrounds fare relatively badly within formal educational systems (Douglas, 1964; Davie et al. 1972; Essen and Wedge, 1982; Mortimore and Mortimore, 1986; Osborne and Milbank, 1987; Gorman and Fernandes, 1992; OEGD, 1995). Whilst some outstanding individuals have achieved the highest levels despite (or, in some cases, motivated by) their inauspicious backgrounds, the overall social distribution of educational success and failure has remained depressingly consistent. There is a strong negative correlation between most measures of social disadvantage and school achievement, as even a cursory glance at the league tables of school by school results demonstrates.
