The Pupil Premium Grant was introduced in 2011 with the aim to 'close' the attainment gap within education between children classified as disadvantaged and their peers. However, recent research has shown that this gap appears to be widening across the education sector. This article explores the reasons why the Pupil Premium Grant was introduced,…

This report is the first in a series examining the magnitude of the teacher shortage and the working conditions and other factors that contribute to the shortage. It finds that the teacher shortage is real, large and growing. When indicators of teacher quality (certification, relevant training, experience, etc.) are taken into account, the…

Worldwide, access to higher education is still a privilege. This unique volume recounts the experiences of students from two rural provinces -- one in Pakistan, one in the Republic of Ireland -- who have struggled to undertake graduate studies. Seeking to understand why some are able to persevere with studies against enormous odds, the authors…

We estimate long-run impacts to the Pathways to Education program, a comprehensive set of coaching, tutoring, group activities and financial incentives offered to disadvantaged students beginning in Grade 9. High school administrative records are matched to income tax records to follow individuals up to the age of 28, even when they leave the…

A student's performance in school is influenced by personal characteristics, but also, amongst other influences, by those of his or her schoolmates. Schoolmates can motivate and help each other overcome learning difficulties; but they can also disrupt instruction, require disproportionate attention from teachers, and be a source of anxiety. The…

While overall primary school enrollment is high in Benin, there are stark differences between regions. In rural areas, children of poor families often have to help with agricultural activities (e.g. working in fields or with cattle) instead of going to school. The Global Partnership for Education is working with Benin to address one of the…

There is a strong relationship between student achievement, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background in Aotearoa New Zealand. This book is committed to providing a framework for teaching for equity, to ensure those students who are typically underserved by the system have equitable opportunities to excel. A group of teachers, principals, and…

The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) that passed in 2015 changed many aspects of school accountability across the United States. Under ESSA states had to interpret new requirements and create accountability plans. As part of Maryland's ESSA plan, a new school report, the Maryland Report Card, was developed to evaluate school performance…

This brief summarizes findings on strategies for helping hard-to-employ populations--especially cash welfare assistance clients and disadvantaged parents with child support obligations--become employed. It begins with an overview of the unique needs of these two groups, followed by a review of strategies that have successfully boosted their…

Much of the heavy lifting on widening participation in higher education to date has been undertaken by newer and less selective higher education institutions. The access challenge therefore remains greater at more selective institutions. They could learn from the best practice that exists in less selective universities. It will take nearly a…

The purpose of this policy brief is to provide an overview of the characteristics of newcomer students in the state of Oregon, as well as their schooling contexts. Findings were based on tabulation of statewide, student-level data from the 2015-16 school year. Newcomer students were defined as students born outside the U.S. and enrolled in U.S.…

Our study extends the understanding of how three distinct environments including home, childcare, and neighbourhood may influence young children's problematic behaviours among a sample of predominantly unmarried mothers residing in urban communities in the United States. With a sample of 791 mothers we examined whether neighbourhood disadvantage…

The development of educational gerontology (EG) policies in mainland China has gone through two stages, the social welfare stage (1982-2000) and the lifelong learning stage (2001-present), and a rudimentary system of EG provisions and legislation has been formed. Although a system of EG practices in mainland China has also been built under the…

This study solicited perspectives of underserved youth and educators who serve them regarding college and career readiness. We defined underserved youth as adolescents who experience inequitable access to educational resources. Purposeful sampling was used to select 84 focus group participants including educators and students (9-12th grade).…

A hallmark of English higher education (HE) over the last twenty years has been policies seeking to increase provider competition and student choice. Central to this has been student funding policy changes, leading to rising college costs. This article asks if prospective HE students' concerns about college costs and the financial strategies they…