This article explores teacher discretion in the context of the English 2014 science curriculum and assessment reforms. The study positions primary and secondary school science teachers as “street-level bureaucrats” in which they are not just mere implementers of policy but instead pivotal actors with much agency. Through the analysis of questionnaire and interview data drawn from a sample of 26 science teachers in England, this empirical research advances our understanding of teachers’ discretionary decision-making considering policy change and reform. The findings indicate that discretion varied, not simply between the secondary and primary sectors, but within each key stage. With the introduction of the new curriculum, secondary teachers expressed higher levels of autonomy and more discretion teaching key stage 3 than with key stage 4 and key stage 5. Despite this, we argue that it has become more difficult for teachers to circumvent the “rules” associated with the attainment measures in the ways that were previously possible. We conclude that the embodiment of teachers as street-level bureaucrats is not perfect as the boundaries around teacher’s discretion and decision-making are heavily dependent on the school and national policy context, but it remains a useful theory in advancing our understanding of teacher.

Family structures are associated with achievement outcomes, but the percentage of children residing in different family structures has changed over time. In this paper, we revisit data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to determine whether previous findings have also changed over time. Drawing on PISA 2012, we employ multilevel modelling to examine whether school and country compositional factors are still salient a decade later. The final analytical sample included 172,452 students in 7,391 schools from 24 countries. The results indicate, like previous research, an educational disadvantage for students that attend schools with a large concentration of children from single-parent homes. However, this disadvantage is largely due to the lower socioeconomic composition of these schools. At the country level, there is little support for the hypothesis that the achievement gap between students from two- versus one-parent households is greater in countries with higher percentages of single-parent families.

Report on the effects of the programme on children and adoptive parents, and overall adoption services.

Understanding the emotional aspects of pedagogical approaches for primary-aged school children engaged in synchronous audio-led one-to-one online tuition is the focus of this qualitative research study. Data are drawn from the process evaluation element of a large randomized control trial of a 27-week, affordable online mathematics tuition intervention that involved 600 pupils spread across 64 schools in England. Focus groups and interviews conducted with pupils and school staff were used to investigate the pupils’ emotional experiences of the mathematics intervention, with reference to the pupil–tutor relationship and the online environment. Our findings suggest that audio-led synchronous one-to-one online tuition provides variable and limited access to emotionally positive pupil–tutor relationships. Whilst our study largely supports the argument that synchronous technologies enhance the sense of communicating with a “real” person (social presence), we conclude that this does not necessarily have a positive effect. We found that the quality of social presence is contingent on the quality of the pupil–tutor relationship. This paper advances our understanding of social presence theory and highlights the need for program developers to facilitate, and tutors, to consider pupil-sensitive collaborative teaching approaches.

Changes to undergraduate student funding arrangements in England have prompted concerns that increased indebtedness will deter graduates from postgraduate study. While it is clear that student debt has increased substantially in recent years, international evidence is equivocal on whether such debt is a deterrent to further study and there is hardly any prior research on this topic in the UK context. Using a large-scale survey of 2009 and 2012 graduates from six selective English universities, we investigate the association between undergraduate debt, other graduate characteristics and progression to postgraduate study. We find some association of higher debt levels with lower rates of progression to postgraduate study, although this reduces when controlling for other factors, such as degree-level attainment and subject discipline. Within a multivariate logistic regression model predicting progression to postgraduate study we find that debt is not a statistically significant predictor, although other characteristics are important. This indicates, we suggest, that underlying financial resources, rather than debt per se are critical in enabling access to postgraduate study. We consider the implications of recently-announced loans for postgraduate study in England given these findings.

The report evaluates the success of the project which aimed to improve outcomes for children and families that involved a statutory assessment of need in the London Borough of Islington.

This report provides findings from an evaluation of the AdOpt parenting programme and its effectiveness in improving parenting capabilities among participating parents.

Research on improvements to the adoption services of 2 local authorities, including the development of a new diagnostic tool for special guardianship orders and the creation of a ‘permanence improvement’ academy.

The project was intended to support children who could not safely live at home, particularly those with the most complex needs, where adoption was the long-term plan.

Families’ perceptions of, and interactions with, schools and teachers can play an essential role in young people’s educational outcomes. According to Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory, young people grow within
multiple nested systems of influence interacting with each other. Thus, their development is affected by persons, processes, and institutions at all levels, from their
family, to the school they attend, to society. This study examined the role of school-family relationships, parents’ school satisfaction, and their associations with
educational achievement. Drawing upon data from over 10,000 students from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, the results of the multivariate analysis indicated that while positive school-family relationships are a predictor of achievement, this association is mediated by the degree of parents’ satisfaction with their child’s school. We concluded that the combination of strong school-family relationships and high levels of school satisfaction provides a boost for young people’s academic success.
Therefore, school policies and practices that enhance
relationships with families and improve levels of parent satisfaction can result in rewards for all young people including those from poor backgrounds.

The growing consensus over the economic, social and cultural benefits of postgraduate study has not been matched by a detailed understanding of who progresses to postgraduate study, and why. Similarly limited is our understanding of the barriers to postgraduate study. The lack of robust empirical data on these issues is particularly concerning in the context of a reported decline in UK postgraduate student numbers in recent years (see, for example Times Higher Education 10 January 2013), and has led to calls for more research on postgraduate education by a number of organisations (1994 Group 2012; British Academy 2012; HEC 2012; Lindley and Machin 2013; Milburn 2012; NUS 2012

Research in the area of family structure and educational outcomes has often failed to account for instability in family structure. Furthermore, prior research in this area has been dominated by North American studies with a smaller body emerging from Europe. This study draws upon 10,783 young people and their parents from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England to examine the association between family structure and family structure instability on post-16 educational persistence. Multivariate models indicate that family structure instability has a negative impact on educational persistence. After controlling for covariates, young people who had experienced family structure instability were 33% less likely to stay in education than young people who resided in married biological families during the four years prior to the end of compulsory schooling. The findings of this research provide evidence that young people who have experienced a change in family circumstances during these four years are potentially at risk of dropping out of school – this is the case irrespective of the nature of the change. Once covariates were accounted for, young people who resided in stable lone-parent households were just as likely as those in stable married biological families to continue to post-16 education. Analyses were also conducted to determine the educational persistence of young people from biological vs step-cohabitating families.

This book addresses what is globally acknowledged to be one of the most fundamental and pressing concerns in contemporary society: the ways in which education can help young people understand - and play a full and active part - in contemporary society. On the basis of a national project funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and conducted as part of a partnership between the National Foundation of Educational Research and the Department of Education at the University of York, UK, the authors analyse data from young people and teachers to explore what they understand by citizenship and community and what they currently do, and would like to do, to promote more effective learning and engagement. On the basis of this research the authors make recommendations to enhance levels of understanding and opportunities for engagement in citizenship communities.

This report presents the findings of an agency wide study of drop out of students in UNRWA schools, both at elementary and preparatory levels. The study was undertaken by UNRWA educationalists in the five Fields of its operation, led by the Education Department, HQ, in
2011/2012. The sample relates to 170 schools across the five Fields. Analysis of the data was carried out by the University of York, UK and the American Institutes for Research in Washington, with the active engagement of the UNRWA team.
The study explores the reasons behind UNRWA student drop out from the perspective of students themselves, their parents and the teachers. The purpose of the research was to better understand what causes children to drop out, or as it is referred to in the report, fade out (Hampden, G, 2013). Such understanding will better enable schools and teachers to identify 'warning signs' and 'risk factors' so that preventative and support mechanisms can
be put in place.
Key findings of the study point to the need to address students‟ perception of their own academic underachievement, a stated lack of interest in school and fear of exams. It also highlights the importance of engagement of parents (or carers) in their child's learning and ensuring their completion of schooling. For the UNRWA education system as a whole, the findings suggest the need to consider the role of student grade repetition, as the study shows that a child who has repeated a grade is ten times more likely to drop out of schooling than a child who has not.
Overall this research, and its findings, make a valuable contribution to UNRWAs ongoing strive for quality, evidenced based education for all children in all schools. It also contributes to the wider discourse and our understanding of what the report describes as an enduring world issue.

This document summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 40 indicators on the status and condition of education and a special analysis of the mobility of elementary and secondary school teachers. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2005 print edition includes 40 indicators in six main areas: (1) enrollment trends and student characteristics at all levels of the education system from elementary education to adult learning; (2) student achievement and the longer term, enduring effects of education; (3) student effort and rates of progress through the educational system among different population groups; (4) the contexts of elementary and secondary education in terms of courses taken, teacher characteristics, and other factors; (5) the contexts of postsecondary education; and (6) societal support for learning, including parental and community support for learning, and public and private financial support of education at all levels. In addition, this year's volume contains a special analysis that describes the teacher workforce and the movement of teachers into and out of this workforce.

"The Condition of Education, 2007" summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 48 indicators on the status and condition of education and a special analysis on high school coursetaking. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2007 print edition includes 48 indicators in five main sections: (1) participation in education; (2) learner outcomes; (3) student effort and educational progress; (4) the contexts of elementary and secondary education; and (5) the contexts of postsecondary education. Each indicator contains a discussion along with a graph or table on the main indicator page, and one or more supplemental tables found in appendix 1. The supplemental tables provide data tables of the estimates used in the indicator discussion as well as additional estimates related to the indicator. Tables of standard errors for applicable estimate tables are available on the Web. The Web version includes the following: the 2007 Commissioner's statement, a user's guide, special analyses from 2000 through 2007, all indicators from this edition, and selected indicators from earlier editions of this report. A glossary and an index are also included. Supplementary notes and tables are appended.

Language minority parents may face a number of challenges when trying to communicate or become involved with their child’s school. This Issue Brief describes school-to-home communication practices and opportunities for parent involvement at school as reported by parents of U.S. school-age students from primarily English- and primarily Spanish-speaking households during the 2002–03 school year. Data are drawn from the Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey of the 2003 National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES), which included English and Spanish language surveys of parents’ perceptions of school communication practices and opportunities for parent involvement. Among the findings: A greater percentage of students in English-speaking households than in Spanish-speaking households had parents who reported receiving personal notes or e-mails about the student; receiving newsletters, memos, or notices addressed to all parents; opportunities to attend general meetings; opportunities to attend school events; and chances to volunteer. Differences were still apparent after taking poverty status into account.

This Statistics in Brief uses NCES data to describe differences in nonschool factors that are related to student achievement. The data are from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003, an international assessment of 15-year olds in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy. The report focuses on data from 20 countries that are considered to be the most developed (based on the World Bank High Income Group). The report investigates six nonschool factors that are related to student achievement: highest level of education attained by either of the students’ parents; the highest occupational status of either of the students’ parents; the number of books that students have access to in the home; whether students speak the native language of the country at home; students’ immigrant status; and students’ family structure. The PISA data indicate that the observed variation in the distribution of student characteristics across countries does not place the United States at a disadvantage in international assessments compared with other highly developed countries; students with high levels of socioeconomic status had an educational advantage over their low SES counterparts across all 20 countries, even after considering the differences in the percentage of students who are immigrants, from less-advantaged homes, non-native language speakers, and other factors.

This Issue Brief (1) offers a descriptive portrait of the distribution of instructional paraprofessionals in all public elementary and secondary schools by instructional responsibility and selected school characteristics and (2) examines the educational attainment criteria used by school districts in hiring these paraprofessionals. Data for this analysis were drawn from the 2003–04 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). The findings from this analysis indicate that 91 percent of public elementary and secondary schools in the United States had at least one instructional paraprofessional on staff in 2003–04. A greater percentage of traditional public schools than charter schools had instructional paraprofessionals and a greater percentage of elementary schools than secondary schools report having instructional paraprofessionals. Overall, 93 percent of schools were in districts that required paraprofessionals to have a high school diploma or the equivalent. The results also indicate that a greater percentage of Title I schools than non-Title I schools were in districts that required instructional paraprofessionals to have a high school diploma or the equivalent.

This Issue Brief uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) to examine the scores of public-school language-minority students on a mathematics assessment in 1st grade, as well as the gain in their scores between 1st and 5th grades. Scores are reported by three background characteristics--student’s race/ethnicity, poverty status, and mother’s education--that have been found to be related to achievement. The findings indicate that language-minority students (English Proficient students and English Language Learners) scored lower on a 1st-grade mathematics assessment than did students whose primary home language was English. Between 1st and 5th grades, there was no measurable difference in gain scores on the mathematics assessment among the three language groups. However, gain score differences within and between the language groups were found by student background characteristics. For example, Asian language-minority students made greater gains than their Hispanic peers.

This brief uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) to examine (1) the amount of time that students’ public school teachers expected them to spend on reading/language arts and mathematics homework in first, third, and fifth grades; and (2) reports from parents of public school children of how often their children did homework at home in the first, third, and fifth grades. Teachers' expectations are reported by the percentage of minority students in the student's school and parents' reports are reported by the child's race/ethnicity. The findings indicate that the amount of reading and mathematics homework that students' teachers expected them to complete on a typical evening generally increased from first grade to fifth grade. In both subjects and in all grades, differences were found by the minority enrollment of the school. Children in schools with higher percentages of minority students had teachers who expected more homework on a typical evening, whereas generally children in lower minority schools had teachers who expected less homework. In addition, in all three grades, larger percentages of Black, Asian, and Hispanic children than White children had parents who reported that their child did homework five or more times a week.

Using data from the Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS), this Issue Brief reports on trends in the attrition of public school mathematics and science teachers over a 16-year period and examines the reasons given by mathematics and science teachers for leaving teaching employment. Findings from the analysis indicate that the percentage of public school mathematics and science teachers who left teaching employment did not change measurably between 1988–89 and 2004–05. However, the percentage of other public school teachers who left teaching employment did increase over the same period. Differences were found between mathematics and science leavers and other leavers. For example, of those teachers with a regular or standard certification, a smaller percentage of mathematics and science teachers than other teachers left teaching employment. In addition, when asked to rate various reasons for leaving the teaching profession, greater percentages of mathematics and science leavers than other leavers rated better salary or benefits as very important or extremely important.

This Statistics in Brief uses data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) to examine the number of credits earned by high school students and the relationship between course credit accrual and dropping out. Findings indicate that high school dropouts earned fewer credits than did on-time graduates within each year of high school, and the cumulative course credit accrual gap increased with each subsequent year. The pattern of dropouts earning fewer credits than on-time graduates remained across all examined student and school characteristics (student sex, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, school location, and sophomore class size). However, the size of the cumulative course credit accrual gap between on-time graduates and dropouts varied within academic years for males versus females, Blacks and Hispanics versus Whites, and students attending city high schools versus students attending suburban, town, and rural high schools. For example, the cumulative gap between on-time graduates and 12th-grade dropouts in 2001-02 and 2002-03 was larger for males than for females, indicating that male 12th-grade dropouts were further behind their on-time peers in cumulative course credits accrued than were female 12th-grade dropouts.

This report examines the academic and civic behavior outcomes of teenagers and young adults who have engaged deeply with the arts in or out of school. In several small-group studies, children and teenagers who participated in arts education programs have shown more positive academic and social outcomes in comparison to students who did not participate in those programs. Such studies have proved essential to the current research literature on the types of instrumental benefits associated with an arts education. A standard weakness of the literature, however, has been a dearth of large-scale, longitudinal studies following the same populations over time, tracking the outcomes of students who received intensive arts exposure or arts learning compared with students who did not. "The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth" is a partial attempt to fill this knowledge gap. The authors use four large national databases to analyze the relationship between arts involvement and academic and social achievements. This report displays correlations between arts activity among at-risk youth and subsequent levels of academic performance and civic engagement. For this task, the authors relied on four large longitudinal databases. Each source has unique strengths and limitations in terms of study sample size, age range, and the types of variables included--whether related to arts involvement (in-school and/or extracurricular), academic progress, or social and/or civic participation. Yet after accounting for these differences, three main conclusions arise: (1) Socially and economically disadvantaged children and teenagers who have high levels of arts engagement or arts learning show more positive outcomes in a variety of areas than their low-arts-engaged peers; (2) At-risk teenagers or young adults with a history of intensive arts experiences show achievement levels closer to, and in some cases exceeding, the levels shown by the general population studied; and (3) Most of the positive relationships between arts involvement and academic outcomes apply only to at-risk populations (low-SES). But positive relationships between arts and civic engagement are noted in high-SES groups as well. Meet the Databases is appended. (Contains 11 notes.)

This study continues the refinement of the cultural capital concept, addressing gaps in existing scholarship by analyzing data from two major international datasets: the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS). Using these datasets, the relationship between student participation in culturally enriching activities and the possession of cultural resources and student academic outcomes across nine western industrialized countries is examined. This study focuses on European and North American countries that share a Western cultural history. Caution is warranted in generalizing the literature or results summarized below to countries that have not been shaped by a similar cultural history due to this sampling limitation. This study provides a basis on which to measure the extent to which the effect of cultural capital differs across national borders, even those that share common cultural histories. - See more at: http://www.childtrends.org/?publications=cultural-capital-what-does-it-offer-students-a-cross-national-analysis#sthash.6uH1fBwV.dpuf

The Child: An Encyclopedic Companion offers both parents and professionals access to the best scholarship from all areas of child studies in a remarkable one-volume reference.

Bringing together contemporary research on children and childhood from pediatrics, child psychology, childhood studies, education, sociology, history, law, anthropology, and other related areas, The Child contains more than 500 articles—all written by experts in their fields from around the world and overseen by a panel of distinguished editors led by anthropologist Richard A. Shweder. Each entry provides a concise and accessible synopsis of the topic at hand. For example, the entry “Adoption” begins with a general definition, followed by a detailed look at adoption in different cultures and at different times, a summary of the associated mental and developmental issues that can arise, and an overview of applicable legal and public policy.

While presenting certain universal facts about children’s development from birth through adolescence, the entries also address the many worlds of childhood both within the United States and around the globe. They consider the ways that in which race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and cultural traditions of child rearing can affect children’s experiences of physical and mental health, education, and family. Alongside the topical entries, The Child includes more than forty “Imagining Each Other” essays, which focus on the particular experiences of children in different cultures. In “Work before Play for Yucatec Maya Children,” for example, readers learn of the work responsibilities of some modern-day Mexican children, while in “A Hindu Brahman Boy Is Born Again,” they witness a coming-of-age ritual in contemporary India.

Compiled by some of the most distinguished child development researchers in the world, The Child will broaden the current scope of knowledge on children and childhood. It is an unparalleled resource for parents, social workers, researchers, educators, and others who work with children.

We investigate the gap in math and science achievement of third- and fourth-graders who live with a single parent versus those who live with two parents in 11 countries. The United States and New Zealand rank last among the countries we compare in terms of the equality of achievement between children from single-parent families and those from two-parent homes. Following a multilevel analysis, we find single parenthood to be less detrimental when family policies equalize resources between single- and two-parent families. In addition, the single- and two-parent achievement gap is greater in countries where single-parent families are more prevalent. We conclude that national family policies can offset the negative academic outcomes of single parenthood.

This paper examines whether national family and welfare policies reduce or exacerbate the effects of single-parenthood on a child's educational achievement. Using the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS), we compare 5th grade students from English single-parent families with their counterparts from 13 other European countries. The analysis results suggest that the achievement gap between students from twoparent and single-parent families is far greater in England than it is in all other countries, with the exception of Scotland. The evidence provided in this study suggests that a nation's family policy environment plays an important role in moderating the influence of single-parenthood on children's academic achievement.

Using data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the size of the literacy achievement gap between 15‐year‐old students from two‐parent and those from single‐mother households were compared across 18 industrialized nations. This study found that cross‐national differences exist in the association between single motherhood and literacy achievement. The research findings also indicate that economic deprivation and parental involvement moderate the association between family structure and student literacy achievement.

Quantitative secondary analysis of large-scale data can be combined with in-depth qualitative methods. In this paper, we discuss the role of this combined methods approach in examining the uptake of physics and chemistry in post compulsory schooling for students in England. The secondary data analysis of the National Pupil Database (NPD) served three distinct purposes in the design of this study. These included (1) determining the number of students in England who went on to take physics and chemistry post 16, (2) examining associations between school-level factors and physics and chemistry uptake, and (3) using the secondary data analysis to construct a sampling frame for the selection of the case study schools. Findings from the analysis of the NPD are presented along with a discussion of the limitations and advantages of using large-scale secondary data analysis in a combined methods study.

Japan is experiencing a period of fundamental debate about - and significant modification of - education. The authors argue that it is important to gain further understanding about citizenship education from a range of contexts. Their reflections are based on a long period of collaborative work between colleagues in Japan and England which has included analyses of literature, projects funded by various bodies, including the Japanese government, and ongoing work in the field of political literacy. They provide some descriptive material concerning the historical background, key terms and concepts and aspects of policy and practice relevant to developing an understanding of citizenship education in Japan. They critique citizenship education in Japan, drawing attention to current struggles over the characterisation of this curriculum subject and how it is perceived to resonate throughout schools. They suggest that citizenship education is in a state of flux, and conclude that there is a need for further investigation if we are to gain a proper understanding of how citizenship education is - and could be - perceived and practised. They describe and discuss a recently established research and development project focusing on 'public discourse' through which this further clarification could, in part, be achieved.

The project ‘Creating Citizenship Communities’ is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and is being conducted by a partnership team from the Department of Education, University of York and the National Foundation for Educational Research. This article describes the project design and draws attention to issues emerging from data analysis. An indication is given of the actions to be taken with professionals and young people in light of the project findings. An argument is made for the need to co-ordinate work in schools by developing stronger liaison between citizenship education teachers and those responsible for whole school initiatives to promote community engagement; and helping teachers to build on young people’s existing knowledge and expertise in community matters to help them understand and act more effectively in society

We assess explanations for the associations between cultural capital (especially cultural activities and cultural possessions) and educational performance of schooled adolescents in 22 Western industrialized countries based on data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). We further ascertain variations in the effect of cultural capital across distinct welfare regimes. Results indicate that multiple forms of cultural capital mediate the association between parental socioeconomic status and children’s educational performance in these industrialized countries. Our analyses also show that, especially under liberal-type welfare regimes, children from higher-status families reap greater benefits from cultural capital than do children from lower-status families.

Labour force participation maybe particularly problematic for single-mothers. By working, mothers increase their family’s financial capital and consequently make more money available for educational resources. However, employment often results in the parent having less time to interact with their child and participate in school activities. This is particularly problematic for single-mothers. While abundant research has been conducted on the impact of maternal employment on educational outcomes in the United States, very little international and cross-national research exists. This study draws upon the PISA 2000 data to examine the association between maternal employment, family structure, and reading literacy achievement. The results indicate that in some of the countries, students with full-time and part time working single mothers had an educational advantage over single mothers who did not work. In some countries, this was still the case after accounting for economic resources.

This narrative synthesis based on a literature review undertaken for the project ‘Creating Citizenship Communities’ (funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation) includes discussion, principally, about what research evidence tells us about young people’s definitions of community, of types of engagement by different groups of young people, actions by schools and what they might do in the future to promote engagement. Community is seen as a highly significant and contested area. Young people are viewed negatively by adults but are in some contexts already positively engaged in communities. There seem to be gaps in the literature about what young people understand about community. There is, broadly, some consensus about how to promote engagement.

This paper presents the findings of the qualitative component of a combined methods research study that explores a range of individual and school factors that influence the uptake of chemistry and physics in post-compulsory study in England. The first phase involves using the National Pupil Database to provide a sampling frame to identify four matched pairs of high-uptake and low-uptake schools by salient school factors. Case studies of these eight schools indicate that students employ selection strategies related to their career aspirations, their sense of identity and tactics, and their prior experience. The school factors influencing subject choice relate to school management, student support and guidance, and student empowerment. The most notable differences between students in high-uptake and low-uptake schools are that students in high-uptake schools appear to make a proactive choice in relation to career aspirations, rather than a reactive choice on the basis of past experience. Schools with a high uptake offer a diverse science curriculum in the final two years of compulsory study, set higher examination entry requirements for further study and, crucially, provide a range of opportunities for students to interact with the world of work and to gain knowledge and experience of science-related careers.

The purpose of this analysis is to describe the variation in students' reports of engagement in science across science teaching and learning activities. In addition, this study examines student and school characteristics that may be associated with students' levels of engagement in science. Data are drawn from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2006 study. The analysis employs a quantitative approach that includes descriptive and inferential statistics to examine three measures of student engagement for a nationally representative sample of approximately 12,000 15-year-old students in the UK. The main results indicate that there is an association between students' motivation towards science, enjoyment of science and future orientation towards science, and the frequency in which various teaching and learning activities take place in the classroom. Understanding student engagement in science and the factors that influence it is essential in addressing the issue of uptake of science after compulsory schooling.

Increasingly, research methods in a core component of many undergraduate social science programmes. Education is no exception. Engaging students and developing their research skills, particularly in the area of quantitative methods, is challenging. This paper presents the redesign and reconceptualisation of a compulsory research methods in education module for 2nd year undergraduates. It highlights the approach taken and provides the results of a small exploratory study that was used to assess the student’s attitudes towards the module. The results of the study indicate that overall the students had a positive attitude towards the new research methods module and that they exhibited confidence in their quantitative research skills.

This study explored the interface between policy, the family, and educational outcomes. More specifically, this research examined how the association between single motherhood and children’s literacy achievement is affected by a country’s family policy environment. Using data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and national level comparative policy data, the results from the 2-level hierarchical linear models indicate that in those countries that have policies that favor low-income single-parent families, the literacy gap decreases in size between students who reside in single-mother households and their counterparts who reside in two-parent families.

Using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), we examine the association between parental involvement and student literacy in 21 countries. We consider how the nature of the association between parental involvement and student literacy varies in direction and magnitude across national borders and across multiple dimensions of parental involvement and measures of literacy. Across the 21 countries, we observe that, in general, increased social and cultural communication with parents is associated with higher levels of student literacy, although the association is most consistent in the area of reading literacy. Specifically, for students residing in eight countries (Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom), there are consistent reading literacy benefits when their parents engage in various forms of social and cultural communication. Consistently across all 21 countries, students have significantly lower literacy scores the more frequently parents assist with homework. This finding provides robust cross-national support for the reactive hypothesis.

This paper discusses secondary school pupils’ understandings and experiences of diversity and communities in England. It draws on qualitative data from a field study conducted in 8 schools as part of a larger project funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The larger project, which included a review of literature, analysis of Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LYPSE) data and a national survey of school staff, aimed to explore current thinking and practice about citizenship and community cohesion. For this article field notes, and 16 audio-recorded focus group discussions with year 10 and year 11 students were analysed thematically, through multi-disciplinary team dialogue, informed by literature on diversity, community cohesion, belonging and citizenship education. Despite some variation in responses across schools, the results clearly demonstrate that student discourses of diversity grapple with notions of sameness and assimilation. We argue that citizenship education practice must be informed by robust research that addresses boundary notions and practices of identity and citizenship.