ABSTRACT
The previous passage provided data and comment on social class differences in access to selective secondary education. This one gives information on pupils’ attainments in infant schools and departments and relates these to social class (defined here in terms of the occupational group of the children’s fathers). The figures come from the National Child Development Study which examined the overall development of about 16,000 children born between 3 March and 9 March 1958. This particular study of the children at the age of 7 was followed up when they were 11 (Wedge and Prosser, 1973) and again at 16 (Fogelman, 1976). Each of the studies revealed a similar picture, suggesting that ‘whatever the factors are which social class indirectly measures, they are fairly sharply differentiated as between middle-class and working-class homes, at least as far as their effect on attainment or ability is concerned’. The particular figures reproduced here indicated the extent of class-related differences in attainment after only two years of compulsory education. A similar longitudinal study of a 1946 cohort of children (Douglas, 1964; Douglas, Ross and Simpson, 1968) indicated that the gap between social classes continued to widen during the period of formal schooling, at least as far as scores on reading and arithmetic tests were concerned.
This particular extract has been chosen as an example of the kinds of data which were provided by psychologists, medical personnel and others, and which required sociological study. In the event, the social determinants of educability proved elusive to pin down.
In interpreting the data in the extract, readers need to know the classifications of occupations adopted by the National Child Development Study as an indicator of social class:
Social Class I
Higher professional
II
Other professional and technical
III
(non-manual) Other non-manual occupations
III
(manual) Skilled manual
IV
Semi-skilled manual
V
Unskilled manual
