ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces key themes to be investigated in the remainder of the book; the fundamental issue is the poverty attainment gap, meaning that children from poorer families, on average, have worse opportunities for schooling and/or worse school attainment outcomes. Using a birth to adulthood perspective, the chapter illustrates where this gap appears and what might be driving it. The chapter, and this book, then focuses on the factors that are identified as clearly changeable and largely the responsibility of education itself. One major factor, picked up in detail in later chapters, is the prevalence of and damage caused by the clustering or poorer children in specific areas and schools.
