Differences in educational acievement by ethnicity.

Page 1

Highest achieving groups:

Chinese and Indian Asian pupils consistently have higher levels of attainment tahn other ethnic groups.

They are more likely to achieve five or more GCSE grades at A*-C, to get better A-level results, and to stay in education after the end of compulsory schooling.

Chinese and Indian students outperfom every other ethnic group at both GCSE and A-level.

Lowest achieving groups:

Black Caribbean, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Gypsy/Roma and Traveller-of-Irish Heritage.

They appear to have below average reading skills.

At the beginning of primary school, most ethnic minority pupils lag behind white British-born pupils.

Black Caribbean boys, whose performance deteriorates between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 4, most cleary at secondary schools, compared to White British children with similar levels of ability.

Black Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils, and Gypsy/Roma and Traveller-of-Irish-Heritage pupils, consistently have lower levels of attainment than other ethnic groups across all national curriculum Key stages and are less likely to attain higher GCSE results than the children of Chinese, White British or Indian origin.

Black Caribbean young people are overrepresented in special schools for those with learning difficulties. They are one and a half times more likely to be categorised as having emotional, behavioural or social difficulties as White-British students.

Despite raising standards of achievement for all ethnic groups, the gap between Black Carribean and Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils and their White-British peers is a little different from what it was in the 90s.

Black Caribbean school students are more likely to be permanently excluded from schools than White British students of the same sex, and to be excluded for longer fixed terms than white students for the same offences.

Where schools are streamed by ability, minority ethnic groups are overrepresented in the lower streams. Evidence suggests they are placed in lower streams even when they get better results than some students placed in higher streams.