NALDIC urges the DfE and local authorities to continue to collect and analyse data by language and ethnicity in detail in order to help schools target funding appropriately to raise achievement for underperforming groups.
The 2013 GCSE Results by pupil characteristics (which includes EAL and Main Ethnicity categories) have been published. Nationally, pupils speaking a language other than English are now only 2.6 percentage points behind those whose first language is English, thus slightly narrowing the gap from last year (2.9%). As in previous years, a higher proportion of bilingual students achieved the expected level in progress in English and mathematics than those whose first language is English, but the gap between these two groups has narrowed.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/gcse-and-equivalent-attainment-by-pupil-characteristics-2012-to-2013
However, the National data disguises considerable regional variation. In most London Authorities, EAL learners now out perform their monolingual counterparts. The same is true of other urban areas such as Manchester, Coventry and Sandwell. Yet in many other areas the gap between EAL and monolingual pupils remains stubbornly wide. In 19 authorities it is over 10 % points. There is still a lot of work to be done, which is being hampered by the reductions in EAL specialist teachers and consultants in many of these areas.
Significant differences still remain in the attainment of different ethnic groups. Whereas learners of Indian and Chinese heritage continue to outperform White pupils, the gains of the Bangladeshi heritage population should also be celebrated; they now outperform White pupils by nearly 4% points. Pakistani heritage and Gypsy Roma pupils’ attainment still lags behind other groups. The ‘White Other’ category covers such a wide variety of linguistic and ethnic groups that it is not meaningful to use it for comparison purposes.
