ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book aims to throw light on the factors in the home and the school that affect attainment and progress in the infant school, and in particular the factors that might account for differences in the school attainment of boys and girls, and black and white children. Throughout the book the authors have distinguished between attainment and relative progress, that is, the difference in progress made by children who had similar educational attainments at school entry. In statistical terms, pre-school test results explained about half of the variation in top infant test scores. Factors in the home were strongly associated with the children's pre-school attainments, and thus their attainments at age seven. Whilst parental behaviour and attitudes were not related to progress in the infant school, certain characteristics of the children themselves were strongly related to progress.
