title: How well can we predict educational outcomes? Examining the roles of cognitive ability and social position in educational attainment.
abstract: Social inequalities in UK educational outcomes continue to persist despite improvements in recent years. However, studies that examine these inequalities fail to account for differences in prior cognitive ability. We seek to determine the influence of cognitive ability on educational outcomes and the extent of socio-economic disparities in education across a wide range of indicators while accounting for cognitive ability. Social inequalities exist whereby children from disadvantaged backgrounds systematically underperform compared to their advantaged peers regardless of cognitive ability; high ability children from disadvantaged backgrounds are disproportionately less likely to attain good grades compared to children from advantaged backgrounds. In addition, school effects operate to add to this inequality as children in fee-paying secondary schools outperform their state secondary school counterparts regardless of ability. Future UK policies should focus on reducing social inequality in education to ensure that all children are offered the same life chances regardless of background.
authors.affiliation: School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol , Bristol , UK.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.affiliation: School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford , Oxford , UK.
authors.forename: Danny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dorling
authors.affiliation: MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) at the University of Bristol, School of Social and Community Medicine , Bristol , UK.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Davey Smith
keywords: ALSPAC; cognitive ability; education; schools; social inequality