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Over time there has been a switch in gender success throughout education; coming into the late 1980's underachievement by girls was common; girls were less likely than boys to obtain one or more A-levels and were less likely to go on to higher education. Coming in to the next decade of the 1990's there was a sudden reversal; girls were now doing better than boys who were now underachieving. In 2006 10% more females were obtaining 2 or more A-levels than males. Women are now getting better degrees than men. Sociologists have looked into this gender diversion from a social perspective. What made this reversal so sudden and why did it occur?

Feminists believe that the education system is patriarchal and dominated by men, just like the work force is. Feminists argue that the education system is just a primary preparation for leading into the future work force. They believe there are still gender differences in subject choice in schools. Colley (1998) reviewed this idea and found that despite all the social changes in recent decades, traditional definitions of masculinity and femininity were still widespread. Sociologists Heaton and Lawson (1996) argue that the 'hidden' curriculum is a major source of gender socialisation; within education, various subjects are aimed at a certain gender group; for example cooking would be aimed at girls doing house work and cooking. While most schools now title this course, Food Technology, feminists believe that the subject is still designed to 'snare' girls into adopting a mode of behaviour a patriarchal society accept and that the gap between girls and boys is still there in today's society. Feminists also believe that gender stereotyping may still exist in society as boys are believed to fit better in the future workforce than girls. Reasons given forward for girls previously underachieving in education have been due to females being family orientated and family focused, that education was patriarchal and socialisation of the role they are expected to play as a female traditionally. However, Norman (1988) further points out that before children even begin school at the age of 5, sex stereotyping has already begun from the dolls they play with reinforcing feministic roles; for example: dolls now come with pretend make up and some with aprons on them and mini kitchens for girls to play with. This may affect girls educational aspirations. Similarly, they may come to believe that gaining qualifications through education is secondary to the ideas of love, marriage and having children. Boys, however, are more likely to be given constructional toys which help develop scientific and mathematical concepts. These gender stereotypes are further reinforced through the media. Therefore as a consequence of this form of early socialization girls may have come to value education less than boys particularly around the 1980's.

By the 1990's gender stereotyping was still apparent in society however more women were achieving greater success throughout education and work. The Spice Girls were the cultural icons of the 1990's representing female success and achievement; this could be an argument put forward as to why the gender achievement role started to become more accessible to women and the role eventually switched to females doing better than males. The 1988 Education Reform Act which brought in coursework benefited girls largely also as they're generally more organised and care more about their works appearance than males do, girls are more chaperoned throughout society by the family as they are seen as more vulnerable than boys and therefore would be at home more often than boys would be and therefore have more time for their work. Feminists believe that the role of education should be to advantage and benefit disadvantaged women. The Education Reform Act of 1988 showed clear indication of women being given more chance to achieve however it can be believed and is by many feminists that really education is reproducing gender inequality and widening the current gap that already exists throughout society.

Sharpe (1976, 1994) interviewed a sample of girls in the 1970's and another sample in the 1990's. She found that their priorities had changed from love and marriage in the 1970s to jobs, aspirations and careers in the 1990's. It's evident that there was a clear increase in career ambitions by females from this research. This could have been influenced by two things, educational success from coursework and gradual improvement or more modern socialisation from parents and the media, furthering the theology of things such as the Spice Girls. Radical Feminists seek to raise girls' awareness of the structure of patriarchy in schools and in the workplace and family. Their strategy for doing this is to try and establish female discussion and support groups, in which patriarchy can be examined, and the confidence and skills of females to combat it are developed, eventually this should gradually decrease exploitation of women. According to Mitsos & Browne (1998) the women's movement and feminism have all together raised the expectations and self esteem of women. This had for feminists had a positive motive for them to keep fighting for equality as although things are much better than in previous times in history women are still not fully equal to men and this is developing into the wider society outside of education and into work.

Dale Spender believes that teachers throughout school give boys and girls different types of attention; he says that girls are praised for appearance, good behaviour and neat work. He has further looked into the argument of gender inequality in education and said: 'What is considered inherently interesting is knowledge about men. Because men control the records, and the value system, it is generally believed that it is men who have done all the exciting things, it is men who have made (his)tory, made discoveries, made inventions and performed feats of skill and courage - according to men. These are the important activities and only men can engage in them, so we are led to believe. And so it is that the activities of men become the curriculum.' - Dale Spender, 1982

Feminist's views often interlink with that of Spender's and with their belief that boys are better set out for life, education and the workforce from the moment they are born due to their sex. This goes against the idea of meritocracy and encourages the idea of self fulfilling prophecy and discrimination. Feminists look at society on a macro scale and want to generalise their ideas about males and females to the whole of society. They believe society is based on conflict and that conflict is between the sexes.

A conflict structuralist such as a Marxist would argue that gender inequality is present to ultimately benefit the economy and the bourgeoisie's needs. Friedrick Engels (1972) a Marxist sociologist had the theory through studying the evolution of the family through time that the monogamous nuclear family developed to solve the problem of the inheritance of private property. Property was owned by males, who needed heirs (offspring) to whom they could pass it on. They needed greater control over women so the paternity of their offspring was certain; furthering the theme of women being the supporter of the male. Therefore through primary socialisation which Parson's would say is the family, the role of men is already passed on to young children as being the head of the family, the more successful inevitably in education and eventually in work. Secondary socialisation is carried out in education which furthers the values and norms taught in primary socialisation in addition to preparation for the workforce. Young children are indoctrinated by ruling class ideology through hegemony of the bourgeoisie to accept exploitation and expected roles from an early age, whether it is through primary or secondary socialisation of the family and education or through the media. Marxist feminists believe that the women's role in society is shaped by the needs of the economy and capitalism where women are socialised into supporting men in the home and at work and that education enforces this theory. The 'warm bath theory' is a Marxism view and maintains the idea that females should do all they can to keep the alienated working man supported and happy to keep working for the money he needs to support his family, carrying out his role in society. This directly alters the females outlook and aspirations to education compared to males. If a female feels that they're life is already planned out for them and they're main goal in life is to achieve a family then education isn't a necessity just a compulsory extra. It is however argued that Marxism largely ignores the subjugation of women and that their potential ability and views are old fashioned and not of a modern day relevance as many alterations throughout recent times happen to contradict these theories.

Secondary socialisation occurs in schools and throughout education and involves other influences and institutions exerting influence upon a group. Feminists believe that education is an agent of secondary socialisation that helps to enforce patriarchy. When discussing boys in education this bares a large amount of importance because by being around the 'subcultures' boys are conditioned into accepting the patterns of behaviour around them as normal and begin to eventually share similar values and roles. This is then when groups of similar ethnicity or class could potentially get together and create a cultural diversity of power and 'rebel'.

When discussing the topic of attainment in regards to gender another factor is the difference of attention given by teachers to males and females and their set expectations of each. Boys often demand more attention from teachers than female, usually negative. An interactionist's perspective is the self-fulfilling prophecy theory which argues that predictions made by teachers will tend to make themselves come true. The teacher defines or labels the pupil in a particular way. This teacher's interaction with pupils will be informed by their labelling of the pupils, and the pupils may respond accordingly, verifying the label and fulfilling the prophecy. Therefore, if males dominate a superior stand compared to females in the classroom and with their teachers will their label represent a more positive future importance than that of a females? And will the female get over looked? This is further encouraged by 'setting' or 'banding' due to targeted ability and divisions by grouping in lessons. Hargreaves (1967) found that children in lower streams in a secondary school were labelled as 'troublemakers. As a result, they turned against the values of the school and developed a non-conformist delinquent subculture.

Jackson (2006) carried out a mixture of interviews and questionnaires in eight schools to study masculinity and femininity. The schools were dominated by culture of dominant masculinity. This valued toughness, power and competitiveness. Academic work was defined as too feminine to be seen as 'cool' by boys. This resulted in many boys messing about in schools and not concentrating on their work, acting out 'laddish' masculinity. Jackson believes that laddish masculinity is a 'response to fear of failure in an increasingly competitive education system.' With girls now currently doing better than boys it could be argued that many boys have been put off trying to compete with a girl in case the girl does better making the boy feel inferior and humiliated as boys have been indoctrinated to believe they are to do better than females and if they don't they are not 'macho' and 'cool'.

The media plays a huge role in indoctrinating, socialising and creating cultural identity for many individuals in society. Liberal feminists find evidence of sex role stereotyping in the media and argue that it influences behaviour. Tuchman (1978) said that although representations may be changing with time; 'media images tend to lag behind changes in society.' Beuf (1974) argues that children model themselves on TV role models and this leads to many girls abandoning their ambitions before they reach the age of 6. Marxists would see this as cultural hegemony. However from this evidence put forward it indicates the clear vulnerability of individuals in society and shows there are many embedded gender inequalities advertised to us from growing up to the expectations of us from birth due to our gender. Therefore, although education plays a large part of widening the gap, I strongly believe the gap was already there before education starts.

It is increasingly clear that throughout this essay the attainment gap between male and females is definitely there and that it is somewhat partially responsible for gender inequality developing more visible in the wider society. Postmodernists would argue that gender inequality is apparent throughout history and today's current society however the gap has narrowed and education is not the only reason for the gap there are many other contributing factors. Between 1971 and 2006, the rate of employment for women in the UK wet up from 56% to 70% and is still increasing, divorce rates in the UK in recent investigations have also largely increased proving that women now need an education in means of supporting themselves and their children, independence is becoming more expected of women and more women now look for careers rather than just jobs, which means an added emphasis on education and attaining degree-level qualifications. Therefore, we cannot be clear on exactly why this attainment gap in education exists entirely as times are changing; with evidence from data, statistics, investigations, questionnaires and theories the interpretations made are often different however conclude overall to the idea of it being mainly down to primary and secondary socialisation of individual's norms and values set by the family, school and the media as to why gender inequalities are current in today's society.

Courtesy of Lee Bryant, Director of Sixth Form, Anglo-European School, Ingatestone, Essex

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Gender and Educational Attainment - History Learning Site

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Over time there has been a switch in gender success throughout education; coming into the late 1980's underachievement by girls was common; girls were less likely than boys to obtain one or more A-levels and were less likely to go on to higher education. Coming in to the next decade of the 1990's there was ...

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Prezi on ethnicity and education

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Education Equality and Achievement in Education L3

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University of Manchester blog on ethnicity and education 

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University of Manchester blog on ethnicity and education 

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Despite the educational attainment gap between ethnic minority groups and the White British group narrowing, some ethnic minority groups continue to experience inequalities in education, explains Dr Kitty Lymperopoulou, who has contributed to a book on Ethnic identity and inequalities in Britain which has just been published.
Filed Under: By Kitty Lymperopoulou Ethnicity, Featured Posted:

Education policy under successive governments in the UK has been characterised by a series of initiatives aimed at improving school performance and raising educational attainment. Targeting resources at disadvantaged groups to reduce inequalities in education was seen as integral in achieving improvements in attainment.

Historically, ethnic minority groups have been disadvantaged in terms of education and there has been an educational gap between ethnic minority groups and White British people. The 2011 Census shows this is no longer the case. In 2011, one in three people from ethnic minority groups had degree level qualifications, compared with one in four White British people.

Meenakshi Parameshwaran and I used data from the last three censuses to examine the extent of ethnic inequalities in education and how these have changed over time. The analysis shows improvements have not been even across ethnic groups. The largest improvements between 1991 and 2011 were for the Indian and Pakistani groups. These groups experienced large increases in those with degree level qualifications (by 27 and 18 percentage points respectively). The increases in the proportion of people with degree level qualifications were more modest for the Bangladeshi and Black African groups (at around 15 and 14 percentage points respectively) while the smallest improvement was for the White group (13 percentage points).

There is no doubt that these improvements reflect wider and better access to higher education, particularly among women. Educational attainment has been increasing among ethnic groups as a result of improvements in access to education overseas. The number of minority ethnic people educated in Britain has also increased. Our analysis of the ethnic group educational gap by age and gender - which is published in the book Ethnic Identity and Inequalities in Britain, released this month - demonstrates these improvements.

The 2011 Census shows that there are large differences in attainment between younger and older members of ethnic minority groups. These differences are greater among ethnic minority women than men, particularly in the Bangladeshi and Pakistani groups. On average, a third of Bangladeshi and Pakistani women had no qualifications in 2011. But the proportion of Bangladeshi and Pakistani women aged 50 or above without qualifications (at 75% and 65% respectively) was more than seven times and six higher than that of Bangladeshi and Pakistani women aged 16 to 24 (10% and 11% respectively).

The gender gap in attainment also seems to have narrowed over time. While Bangladeshi and Pakistani men, on average, had a lower proportion with no qualifications (24% and 21%) compared to women (33% and 30% respectively) in 2011, there was hardly any difference between men and women with no qualifications in the 16 to 24 age group.

Despite these improvements, some groups continue to face a disadvantage in terms of education. In 2011, people from Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups were less likely to have degree level qualifications than White British people (25% and 20%, compared with 26%).

The proportion of people with qualifications was even lower among some other ethnic groups. One in ten people from the White Gypsy and Irish Traveller group had degree level qualifications in 2011, while six in ten were without any qualifications. At the same time Indian, Chinese and Black African groups outperformed all other groups, its members being more than one-and-a-half times more likely to hold degrees than White British people (see figure 1).

The reasons some groups perform better than others may be structural. Some groups may simply have better access to resources than others to enable them to gain qualifications. Targeting resources to address the under-performance of ethnic minority pupils - for example, through the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG) - may have helped raise attainment levels. Some ethnic groups may also value education differently and have higher aspirations than others. Cultural reasons such as practices and expectations about family formation may also explain the lower attainment among women, particularly in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups. Geography also plays a role, although our work on local ethnic inequalities shows that ethnic inequalities are widespread across the country.

The positive selection of migrants to the UK has meant that foreign born people are more likely to be highly qualified than UK-born people. The ethnic groups with the highest attainment - Indian, Chinese and Black African groups - all grew mainly through immigration. One in three people born outside the UK in England or Wales had degree level qualifications in 2011, compared with one in four of those born in the UK. Recent arrivals are typically more highly qualified than earlier immigrants and they tend to be younger. This explains the large educational gap by age within ethnic groups.

Despite significant progress, it is clear there remain significant disparities in education between people from different ethnic groups. Although members of ethnic minority communities are better educated than White British people, they remain subject to inequalities in employment. As demonstrated by CoDE research examining ethnic inequalities in the labour market, unemployment remains higher amongst most ethnic minority groups than for the White British. The unemployment rate of the Black African group - one of the most qualified groups in 2011 - was around three times higher than that of the White British group. This suggests that the priorities for policy should not just be about raising the attainment of ethnic groups that are underperforming. Policymakers will need to ensure that better education leads to better jobs. It is clear that ethnic minorities continue to face barriers to upward social mobility. Unless these barriers are removed, ethnic social and economic inequalities will continue to persist.

Source: 2011 Census

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Still disadvantaged? The educational attainment of ethnic minority groups

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Despite the educational attainment gap between ethnic minority groups and the White British group narrowing, some ethnic minority groups continue to experience inequalities in education, explains Dr Kitty Lymperopoulou, who has contributed to a book on Ethnic identity and inequalities in Britain which has just been published.

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Ethnicity and education Ethnicity Assess the importance of school factors such as racism and pupils' responses to racism in creating ethnic differences in educational achievement Education, ethnicity and the exam Lawson and Garod 2000 Children from minority ethnic groups make up ? of pupils in the UK? External factors Cultural deprivation Internal factors 'People who share common history, customs and identity, as well as, in most cases, language and religion, and who see themselves as a distinct unit' How do we classify ethnicity?

Crystal 2003 over 100 languages in routine use in the UK White and Asian students, on average do better than black students but within Asian groups, Indians do better than Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. The proportion of black Caribbean pupils achieving five good GCSE results at grades A* - C or the equivalent qualifications was up by six percentage points to 41.7%, with 48.3% of black African pupils achieving the same.

The statistics show that Chinese pupils, Indian pupils, pupils of mixed white and Asian heritage and Irish pupils consistently achieve above the national average for all pupils in the state sector at every stage of the school system.

But Roma Gypsy and traveller children of Irish heritage still perform below the national average at all key stages and GCSE level.

Despite recording a sharp increase in results at Key Stage 2 (11 years old), their GCSE results declined this year.

Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils also achieve below-average results at each key assessment level, including GCSE.

For example, 77% of Pakistani pupils and 78% of Bangladeshi pupils achieved the expected level at Key Stage 1 reading compared with 85% of all pupils.

BBC 2006 Intellectual and linguistic skills Lack of intellect and language skills Bereiter and Englemann 1966
Lower class families communicate with gestures, single words or nonsensical phrases. Swann Report 1985
Linguistic factors held back a few West Indian children but there were no significant differences for the vast majority Modood et al 1997
Found a lack of fluency in English was a significant problem for some groups, especially women (20% of Bangladeshi women were not fluent). Gilborn and Mirza 2000
Indian students did well even though English wasn't the language they used at home. Attitudes and values 'Poor' attitudes - black children
Sugarman 1970 Live for today

Immediate gratification

Outside of the mainstream culture Family life Single parents Moynihan 1965
Black families headed by a single mother - struggle financially. Pryce 1979
Family structure contributes - Asian community more resistant to racism whereas black Caribbean culture is less cohesive. Lupton 2004
Supports Pryce as she says that Asian families are similar to schools regarding authority and respect Criticisms of cultural deprivation Driver 1977
Ethnicity can have positive effects e.g. independent women. Keddie 1973
Again...culturally different, not culturally deprived. Lawrence 1982
Black pupils don't fail because of weak culture, but because of low self-esteem and racism. Multicultural education The following are the current ONS ethnicity codes based on the 2011 UK Census:

White: English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British Scottish Irish Traveller
Irish: Other British Mixed / Multiple ethnic groups
Gypsy or Irish Traveller, Irish White and Black Caribbean
Any other White background, please describe Gypsy / Traveller White and Black African
Mixed / multiple ethnic groups Polish White and Asian
White and Black Caribbean Any other White ethnic group, please describe Any other Mixed / Multiple ethnic background, please describe
White and Black African Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups Asian / Asian British
White and Asian Any Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups, please describe Indian
Any other Mixed / Multiple ethnic background, please describe Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British Pakistani
Asian / Asian British Pakistani, Pakistani Scottish or Pakistani British Bangladeshi
Indian Indian, Indian Scottish or Indian British Chinese
Bangladeshi Chinese, Chinese Scottish or Chinese British Black / African / Caribbean / Black British
Pakistani Bangladeshi, Bangladeshi Scottish or Bangladeshi British Any other Asian background, please describe
Chinese Any other Asian, please describe African
Any other Asian background, please describe African Caribbean
Black / African / Caribbean / Black British African, African Scottish or African British Any other Black / African / Caribbean background, please describe
African Any other African, please describe Other ethnic group
Caribbean Caribbean or Black Arab
Any other Black / African / Caribbean background, please describe Caribbean, Caribbean Scottish or Caribbean British Any other ethnic group, please describe
Other ethnic group Black, Black Scottish or Black British
Arab Any other Caribbean or Black, please describe
Any other ethnic group, please describe Other ethnic group
Arab, Arab Scottish or Arab British

Any other ethnic group, please describe Material Deprivation Living in poverty (poor) Unemployed or low skilled and low paid jobs Poor living conditions Swann Report (1985) estimated social class accounts for at least 50% of the difference in achievement between ethnic groups.

Material inequalities are in parallel with those in educational achievement, e.g. Indians and whites are in higher social classes than Bangladeshis and Pakistanis. But...middle class black children do more poorly that middle class white children at GCSE Racism Swann Report 1985 - 'unintentional' racism Wright 1992 - discrimination in four multi-racial inner city primary schools "IQ is not a major factor but there is evidence to suggest that a range of social factors are significant: economic deprivation which itself stems at least in part from racial discrimination; culture which needs to be located in an economic context; ineffective schools; and racism in schools"
Pilkington 1997 Ethnicity in England and Wales according to the 2011 Census Swann Report 1985
Recommended schools promote the idea of Britain as multicultural and take into account minority groups, e.g. to include poems in English that are Caribbean or to give children the chance to play steel drums. Tokenism? It failed to recognise the racism minority groups faced inside and outside of school and some parents believed that only traditional British culture should be included in education. Attempted to tackle racism by seeking ways to educate children how to get rid of it, e.g. the schools wrote anti-racist policies and punished racist behaviour. Anti-racist education & Labelling Gillborn and Youdell 1990/2000 'Racialised expectations' Can ultimately lead to exclusion (Bourne 1994) or at least being in low sets (Foster 1990) O'Donnell 1991 Similar to Fuller's findings, when Indian boys suffer racism, they try harder to succeed Do you know what it is?
Whose theory it is? Pupils responses and subcultures Back to Fuller 1984...the study on black teenagers in a London comprehensive The teenagers that Fuller studied:

Worked conscientiously but pretended not to (and avoided ridicule
Relied on their own efforts
Relied on external and impartial, exams In support: Mac an Ghaill's 1992 study of A-Level black and Asian students Mirza 1992...study of ambitious black girls who failed to realise their ambitions.

Identified three types of teacher racism:
1. Colour blind
2. Liberal chauvinists
3. Overt racists

The strategies the girls used restricted their opportunities. Sewell 1998

He looked at the responses of black pupils when faced with racism in a secondary school.

Sewell concluded there were four different responses, put into groups:

1. The Rebels
2. The conformists
3. The retreatists
4. The innovators Evaluation Labelling theory shows how the influences of what the teachers think, can cause a student to not reach their potential in education But is it just in schools? Racism exists throughout society Doomed to a self-fulfilling prophecy? http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/03/how-stephen-lawrence-changed-britain Ethnocentric curriculum An attitude or policy that gives priority to the culture and viewpoint of one particular ethnic group, disregarding others Ball 1994
'Little Englandism' e.g. the subjects that are covered in history Coard 1971, 2005
Can produce under-achievement by reducing the self-esteem of black children Two types of racism Troyna and Williams 1986 Individual racism

Results from the prejudiced views of individuals, e.g. teachers Institutional racism

Discrimination that is built into the way institutions operate
e.g. failure to deal with racist acts Selection and segregation Gillborn 1997

Marketisation and selection has given minority ethnic groups a disadvantage Commission for Racial Equality 1993

There are biases in British education that lead to minority ethnic groups end up in the worst performing schools. How? Explain teacher labelling, institutional racism, pupil subcultures, ethnocentric curriculum, selection and segregation.
Include Wright, Sewell, Mirza, Fuller.
Evaluate with external factors. The way that schools choose students Flaherty 2004 said this was due to:

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Ethnicity and education Ethnicity Assess the importance of school factors such as racism and pupils' responses to racism in creating ethnic differences in educational achievement Education, ethnicity and the exam Lawson and Garod 2000 Children from minority ethnic groups make up ? of pupils in the UK?

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complete the task at the end of this powerpoint

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For centuries, boys were top of the class. But these days, that's no longer the case. A new study by the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, examined how 15-year-old boys and girls performed at reading, mathematics and science. Boys still score somewhat better at maths, and in science the genders are roughly equal.

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Article on Social Class and Educational Achievement. 

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Article on Social Class and Educational Achievement. 

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On the face of it, she was an unlikely choice as adviser to the education select committee. Becky Francis, professor of education and social justice at King's College London, is a Labour party member and feminist who wears her politics on her sleeve. She thinks private schools should lose their charitable status. She does not mince words about failing academies. She is impatient with politicians who ignore evidence.

When you meet Francis - which I did at her plain university office - her appointment seems less of a surprise. She gives the strong impression of someone who wishes to be helpful, and talks in a very clear way - citing evidence when she says anything vaguely controversial. When she mentions how state school pupils get better degrees than their privately educated peers, she is quick to point me to a Higher Education Funding Council for England report published last month, for example.

Asked how she will measure her own success with the committee in, say, a year's time, she replies: "I hope they'll be glad they invited me."

She has the job for a year, after which it will be advertised for the first time. If things go well, she will apply to carry on. Francis decided in her late 30s that she was as interested in the impact of research as in research itself, and since then has worked at what she calls the "interface" between research and policy: as director of education at the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) and the 2013 Academies Commission, as a special adviser to the previous select committee when it produced its own academies report, and as an author of reports for bodies such as the Sutton Trust - the most recent of which investigated the impact of sponsored academy chains on outcomes for disadvantaged children, and found many of them failing.

The priorities of the new committee, chaired by Neil Carmichael, the Tory MP for Stroud, with new faces including the SNP's Marion Fellows as well as five Conservative women, are yet to be fleshed out, but include a report on the role of regional schools commissioners (already controversial) and another on a looming teacher shortage. Whether the committee will be able to match the robustness of its predecessor, led by Graham Stuart, remains to be seen. While the adviser provides support, it is down to MPs to question witnesses, including the secretary of state.

Francis's priorities are crystal clear. Besides holding policymakers to account, she is determined to protect poorer children from cuts, and prevent any watering-down of policies designed to help them. Already, since Nicky Morgan took over from Michael Gove as education secretary last year, Francis has her eye on "the change in discourse which used to be very much focused on closing the gap but now seems to be about excellent education for all, which I applaud, but I worry there might be a dilution of the very explicit focus in the last parliament on social inequality".

Francis is a strong believer in the pupil premium, introduced in 2010, which tops up and ringfences funding for the poorest pupils, and wants to see it remain "for all disadvantaged pupils, so for high-achieving as well as low-achieving kids. I think that was radical."

She grew up in a village outside Bath, the daughter of a recycling entrepreneur and an Oxford-educated mother who stayed at home when her children were small. She scraped through O-levels at the local comprehensive and says the experience of staying on, when many of her peers left school, is where her interest in educational inequality began.

The independent study required for A-levels suited her better, and after reading English at Swansea University she won a doctoral scholarship for a study comparing boys and girls. This was the early 1990s, and coincided with the start of what she calls a "moral panic" about boys' underachievement.

We're a very classed system and the notion of social segregation as an indicator of quality is deeply rooted

Since then Francis has spent 20 years arguing that too much attention is paid to "a relatively small gender gap, which doesn't seem to have much impact on later careers and life outcomes" - underperforming boys still grow up to earn more than girls and get most of the top jobs - when "the clearly glaring gap in the English system is that of social class. The relationship between parental wealth and background and children's educational outcomes is particularly strong and deeply problematic."

All the data supports the idea that the socioeconomic divide is the biggest issue in education, she says. Francis emphasises that other forms of inequality also matter. She thinks schools should do more to challenge gender stereotypes, and says school can be a dangerous place for gay teenagers, pointing to the high rates of suicide and distress, and has published research on outcomes for ethnic groups including British Chinese.

But the system's real achilles heel, she says, is "patchiness". This has been exacerbated by marketisation and choice - because middle-class people are freer to make choices - and is now being replicated in the huge variations between academies. "Some are doing outstandingly well and others outstandingly badly," she says. "So in a way this issue of patchiness of quality remains writ large, we just have different models of it now."

In her measured way, Francis predicts a crisis: "We're facing a perfect storm because we seem to have a demographic bulge perpetuating the problem with primary places, teacher shortages and a potential problem with headships. Underpinning this are 12% cuts that are going to feel worse because of teacher pensions, pay increases and so on."

The Department for Education needs to shorten the reins on academies, she says, reducing funding agreements from seven to five years, taking a more rigorous approach to sponsors (previously more than 95% were approved), and stepping in more quickly when results are poor. Where charter schools have been successful in the US, she says, turnover was key to effectiveness - failing organisations do not have charters renewed.

Part of the problem, she thinks, is that education policymaking in the UK remains "extremely ideological", so that evidence is routinely ignored. Even when research shows that "academisation is not a panacea", to quote the Academies Commission, politicians continue to insist it is the only way.

Francis is doing a study on setting by ability, another area in which she says prejudice holds too much sway. " Research suggests setting is not beneficial overall and that it's particularly detrimental to kids in low sets and streams, and yet consistently schools tell us they find it difficult to participate in our mixed-attainment projects because they are scared of parents. I think we're a very classed system and the notion of social segregation as an indicator of quality in our system is deeply rooted. There's an assumption somehow that segregation equals quality."

Just as some Tories hark back to an imaginary golden age of grammar schools, she thinks the golden age of comprehensives was imaginary too. They mostly weren't comprehensive - her own school was both streamed and setted - while faith and other schools entrenched divisions that continue to this day. Also, in important ways, schools have improved: "The idea some people on the left have that things are worse in education now - go back to the statistics for the 1970s and 80s and see how the working classes were failed at every turn."

She thinks the national curriculum has been beneficial and supports the model of a self-improving school system advanced by Michael Gove. But she fears this ideal could be jeopardised at a time of shrinking resources, because successful schools won't share expertise when there isn't enough to go around - let alone independent schools, whose response to repeated pleas from ministers to be more generous she calls "extremely disappointing".

Above all, she fears for socially disadvantaged children. Educational inequality, she knows, goes hand in hand with economic inequality. Even extraordinary schools cannot close gaps on their own. "Whenever there is a squeeze on resources and capacity, it tends to be poorer areas and people that feel it most. I worry that welfare cuts will take away from families of pupil-premium children and that we might see gaps growing again."

This article was amended on 14 October 2015. An earlier version said Becky Francis was offered her select committee role by civil servants.

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'The glaring gap in the English education system is social class'

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On the face of it, she was an unlikely choice as adviser to the education select committee. Becky Francis, professor of education and social justice at King's College London, is a Labour party member and feminist who wears her politics on her sleeve. She thinks private schools should lose their charitable status.

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Report from the JRF on Poverty and Education

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Report from the JRF on Poverty and Education

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http://prezi.com/q7usod0vpxkx/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

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An Article on Social Class and Education

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An Article on Social Class and Education

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This is from the University of Bristol