[ruby_v]

Can someone plz mark my paper out of 20?
Item A
There are clear differences in the educational achievement of different ethnic groups. For example, in 2006, 73% of pupils of Indian origin gained 5 A*– C passes at GCSE compared with 56% of white and 47% of black pupils. Sociologists are interested in the causes of these inequalities in educational achievement. Some argue that ethnic differences in educational achievement are primarily the result of school factors. For example, Wright (1992) found that teachers perceived and treated minority ethnic pupils differently from white pupils. Afro-Caribbean boys were often expected to behave badly and they received a disproportionate amount of negative teacher attention. Other sociologists claim that non-school factors such as family structure and home background have a greater impact on the educational achievement of different ethnic groups.
Assess the claim that ‘ethnic differences in educational achievement are primarily the result of school factors’ (20 marks)

Patterns of ethnic achievement are complex, cross-cut by gender and social class. For example Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students do worst compared to Indians and Chinese who do best. White students are very close to the average but this is because they are the great majority of the school population .Among black and working class students, girls do better than boys, and among Asians boys do better than girls. Working class black girls do better than working class white girls. Many sociologists argue that ethnic differences in achievement can best be explained by looking at factors inside the school and outside the school.

As Item A suggests ‘Afro-Caribbean boys were often expected to behave badly and they received a disproportionate amount of negative teacher attention’ that teachers have lower expectations of black boys. These students then tend to be labelled as troublemakers and are seen as disruptive. Gillborn (2000) argues that this labelling to result in a self fulfilling prophecy in which black students become low achieving and disruptive. This illustrates that there are differences in ethnic achievement and in this case it is because of the result of school factors. However, Mac and Ghail (1992) found that there was not a direct relationship between teacher expectation and achievement.

In addition, subjects such as English literature, history and religious education have been accused of being ethnocentric. The focus of these subjects have tended to be the achievements of white Christian students, also the national curriculum does not include the history of black people, and foreign languages taught in schools are primarily European .Where other languages are taught these tend to extra curricular. This shows that due to the subjects being ethnocentric some people who belong to different ethnicities may underachieve, thus a result of school factors. However, although the school curriculum largely ignores Asian culture, Indian and Chinese student’s achievement is still above average. Also Stone argues there is no evidence that black students actually suffer from low self esteem.

On the other hand, there are several home factors that affect educational achievement of people from different ethnicities. For example, a number of writers suggest that the nature of family life affects levels of attainment among ethnic minorities. Pilkington(1994) believes that there is a strong evidence that the cohesiveness of Asian families may assist in the high educational achievement of some groups, and that African Caribbean may have family cultures not as conductive to educational support, this implies that differences in educational achievement is not necessarily the result of just school factors but home factors to.

Furthermore, recent research has suggested that white working class pupils are among the lowest achievers with very low aspirations. Lupton (2004) found that teacher reported poorer levels of behaviour and discipline in white working class schools. Teachers blamed this on lower levels of parental support and the negative attitude whit working class parents had towards education, this shows that the nature of family and children affects their educational achievement and not only school factors
T
he evidence suggests that there are several factors inside and outside the home which affects the education attainment of students and not primarily school factors. However, external factors have the biggest impact on the pupil’s educational achievement such as family, culture and the impact of the wider society.

[SteveyK]

I'm just a sociology student, do don't completely rely on what I say.
But, I'd say this is a 17-18 marker. Very good!