Investigating educational attainment gaps in the early years

Abstract

Background: Children’s access to quality Early Years (ages 0-5) provision is important for future learning and life opportunities.  Government policies aim to provide early years support for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, including initiatives aimed to narrow attainment gaps. Methods/participants: Paper One, a systematic literature review (SLR) evaluates the evidence on targeted initiatives designed to improve outcomes for disadvantaged early years children.  Paper Two, an action research (AR) project commissioned by a local authority in England (LA) explores attainment gaps for children from black ethnic heritage, as identified through ‘Good Level of Development’ (GLD) data at the end of the Foundation Stage.  AR group participants from a variety of professional roles explore how a localised approach to understanding data trends and to investigating key questions facilitates potential changes to practice. Analysis/findings: Paper One found that targeted initiatives aiming to improve outcomes for disadvantaged Early Years children often encounter implementation barriers.  Evaluation of the outcomes of targeting initiatives were broadly positive, however, to ensure the continued success of such initiatives, continued discrete funding is needed.  Paper Two findings highlighted the need to interrogate GLD data in order to fully understand and identify potential attainment gaps.  Stakeholders within the AR group worked collaboratively to co-produce key questions to support their understanding of data trends.  This required a multi-agency, shared ownership approach, where a ‘safe, open environment’ was created to enable discussions around SEND, culture and ethnicity.  All stakeholders agreed that the AR process supported the deconstruction of the identified data trend, with the aim to create positive changes to practice. Factors including localisation, collaboration and commitment facilitated the AR process; factors including diminished capacity and misconceptions around roles and responsibilities were barriers. Conclusion/ implications: The findings from Papers One and Two emphasise the importance of appropriate and sustainable interventions/initiatives when aiming to narrow academic attainment gaps for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.  Multiagency, hypothesis-driven professional groups, working collaboratively to analyse local data, are positively positioned to extract underachievement data trends, from which to plan appropriate support and intervention.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Kevin Woods (Supervisor) & Caroline Bond (Supervisor)