A Quantitative Longitudinal Analysis of Exclusions from English Secondary Schools
Exclusion from school is widely used as a disciplinary tool, but there is concern that it might be applied disproportionately to certain groups of students. Student, family, neighbourhood and school characteristics all relate individually to differences in rates of exclusion but most studies (predom...
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| Format: | Report |
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University of Oxford
2014
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| _version_ | 1797083846365151232 |
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| author | Strand, S Fletcher, J |
| author_facet | Strand, S Fletcher, J |
| author_sort | Strand, S |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Exclusion from school is widely used as a disciplinary tool, but there is concern that it might be applied disproportionately to certain groups of students. Student, family, neighbourhood and school characteristics all relate individually to differences in rates of exclusion but most studies (predominantly in the US) have focussed on a small subset of potential explanatory variables, have not used nationally representative data or have been limited to exclusions at one period of time. in contrast we examine the relationship between exclusion from school and a wide range of variables, using data for a whole cohort of over 500,000 students in England between their entry into secondary education at age 11 and the end of their compulsory education at age 16. We find that 16.3% of all students experience one or more fixed term exclusions (FTE) during their five years of secondary schooling, but that this rises to over 30% for Black Caribbean and Mixed White and Black Caribbean students. The probability of experiencing one or more FTE is strongly related to gender, ethnicity, poverty (as indicated by entitlement to a Free School Meal and by local neighbourhood deprivation), scores in national attainment tests (particularly English) at age 11 and early patterns of attendance in Year 7. The relationship between ethnicity and the odds of experiencing one or more FTE remains large and significant even after controlling for all these other variables. Among those who experience at least one FTE, 56% go on to experience a second or further FTE, but 44% do not. Despite their greatly increased risk of experiencing the first exclusion, conditional on this Black Caribbean and Mixed Black and Caribbean students are no more likely to experience repeated FTEs than White British students. Experience of FTE is the predominant predictor of permanent exclusion but higher rates of permanent exclusion, especially of students from deprived neighbourhoods and certain ethnic groups, are not fully accounted for by previous FTEs. In multi-level regression models the school (20%) and the Local Authority (6%) levels account for significant variation in rates of FTE and very little of this is explained by school characteristics (though schools serving a higher proportion of students from poor families were less likely to exclude, after controlling for the higher risk of exclusion for individual students). We conclude that the drivers of differential rates of exclusion may have significant socio-cultural and school policy dimensions. This robust analysis of nationally representative data establishes a rationale and focus for more qualitative investigations of the role played by family, neighbourhood and school in determining rates of exclusion and the need for further evidence about reasons for variation in rates of exclusion at the school level. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T01:47:15Z |
| format | Report |
| id | oxford-uuid:98d69480-56fe-4633-8dbe-81c4f461f28f |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T01:47:15Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | University of Oxford |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:98d69480-56fe-4633-8dbe-81c4f461f28f2022-03-27T00:09:49ZA Quantitative Longitudinal Analysis of Exclusions from English Secondary SchoolsReporthttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_93fcuuid:98d69480-56fe-4633-8dbe-81c4f461f28fSymplectic Elements at OxfordUniversity of Oxford2014Strand, SFletcher, JExclusion from school is widely used as a disciplinary tool, but there is concern that it might be applied disproportionately to certain groups of students. Student, family, neighbourhood and school characteristics all relate individually to differences in rates of exclusion but most studies (predominantly in the US) have focussed on a small subset of potential explanatory variables, have not used nationally representative data or have been limited to exclusions at one period of time. in contrast we examine the relationship between exclusion from school and a wide range of variables, using data for a whole cohort of over 500,000 students in England between their entry into secondary education at age 11 and the end of their compulsory education at age 16. We find that 16.3% of all students experience one or more fixed term exclusions (FTE) during their five years of secondary schooling, but that this rises to over 30% for Black Caribbean and Mixed White and Black Caribbean students. The probability of experiencing one or more FTE is strongly related to gender, ethnicity, poverty (as indicated by entitlement to a Free School Meal and by local neighbourhood deprivation), scores in national attainment tests (particularly English) at age 11 and early patterns of attendance in Year 7. The relationship between ethnicity and the odds of experiencing one or more FTE remains large and significant even after controlling for all these other variables. Among those who experience at least one FTE, 56% go on to experience a second or further FTE, but 44% do not. Despite their greatly increased risk of experiencing the first exclusion, conditional on this Black Caribbean and Mixed Black and Caribbean students are no more likely to experience repeated FTEs than White British students. Experience of FTE is the predominant predictor of permanent exclusion but higher rates of permanent exclusion, especially of students from deprived neighbourhoods and certain ethnic groups, are not fully accounted for by previous FTEs. In multi-level regression models the school (20%) and the Local Authority (6%) levels account for significant variation in rates of FTE and very little of this is explained by school characteristics (though schools serving a higher proportion of students from poor families were less likely to exclude, after controlling for the higher risk of exclusion for individual students). We conclude that the drivers of differential rates of exclusion may have significant socio-cultural and school policy dimensions. This robust analysis of nationally representative data establishes a rationale and focus for more qualitative investigations of the role played by family, neighbourhood and school in determining rates of exclusion and the need for further evidence about reasons for variation in rates of exclusion at the school level. |
| spellingShingle | Strand, S Fletcher, J A Quantitative Longitudinal Analysis of Exclusions from English Secondary Schools |
| title | A Quantitative Longitudinal Analysis of Exclusions from English Secondary Schools |
| title_full | A Quantitative Longitudinal Analysis of Exclusions from English Secondary Schools |
| title_fullStr | A Quantitative Longitudinal Analysis of Exclusions from English Secondary Schools |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Quantitative Longitudinal Analysis of Exclusions from English Secondary Schools |
| title_short | A Quantitative Longitudinal Analysis of Exclusions from English Secondary Schools |
| title_sort | quantitative longitudinal analysis of exclusions from english secondary schools |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT strands aquantitativelongitudinalanalysisofexclusionsfromenglishsecondaryschools AT fletcherj aquantitativelongitudinalanalysisofexclusionsfromenglishsecondaryschools AT strands quantitativelongitudinalanalysisofexclusionsfromenglishsecondaryschools AT fletcherj quantitativelongitudinalanalysisofexclusionsfromenglishsecondaryschools |