They are also much more likely to be hanging out with a troublesome peer group, and 12 percentage points more likely to report having been in trouble with the police.
Why these results are interesting – and what we don’t currently know
Bright children from low-income america rcs data backgrounds are an important group for promoting social mobility. We know the early years are important – and they have managed to come through those with the basic skills needed to flourish at school.
The fact that they are much less likely to go on and achieve top grades at the end of secondary school is therefore telling.
Yet there remains much we don’t know about the later life outcomes of this group. When – and why – do they start to disengage with school? How does this go on to impact broader aspects of their life, such as their wellbeing and getting in trouble with the law?
And how does this intersect with other characteristics such as ethnicity and gender? Are there, for instance, particular issues facing bright-but-disadvantaged White boys?
I will be exploring such issues as my project with the Nuffield Foundation progresses. This will hopefully provide the most detailed evidence on the outcomes of initially high-achieving young people from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds to date.
bright pupilsdisadvantagedisadvantage gap
About the Author: John Jerrim
John Jerrim is a research associate at FFT Education Datalab and a professor of education and social statistics at UCL Institute of Education. John’s research interests include the economics of education, access to higher education, intergenerational mobility, cross-national comparisons and educational inequalities.