ABSTRACT
Over the years, there has been considerable interest in the issue of underachievement of children from different minority ethnic groups and in this chapter we focus specifically on the relationship between achievement and ethnicity and how these differences may be explained. Although in the past lack of data has been a major handicap in examining this area, in recent years more data have become available as a result of a number of research studies and this has shed more light on the possible reasons for these differences. However, there are still limitations in terms of both the quantity and quality of the data available in this important area of study. These issues are discussed in this chapter, together with various proposals that have been made for addressing differences in attainment between different ethnic groups.
