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SECTION 6: ISSUES ARISING FROM THE
EVALUATION
Rising levels of participation and attainment
of national qualifications
6.1 Since 1999/2000 levels of participation and
attainment in national qualifications have risen throughout
Scotland. Much of this increase can be attributed to the
Higher Still reform of post-compulsory education in
Scotland, which introduced a flexible system of national
units and courses catering for all levels of ability.
6.2 These upward trends in participation and attainment
in national qualifications occur in each of the
EMA Pilot areas, and also in the control
areas used for comparison. In addition, however, there is
evidence that the
EMA increased participation and
attainment in the pilot areas, over and above the overall
trends.
6.3 The new national qualifications were introduced by
the Higher Still reform from 1999/2000. Throughout Scotland
increases in participation and attainment occurred in the
second and third years of national qualifications (ie 2001
and 2002), and this is true of the Phase 1 and Phase 2
Pilot areas also. Thus, the Phase 1 Pilot experienced an
increase in participation and attainment in its second and
third years, while the Phase 2 Pilots experienced a rising
trend in the year before the
EMA started, and also in the first year
of the pilot. These rising trends are significantly greater
in the pilot areas than in the control areas, suggesting
that Higher Still and the
EMA have been mutually reinforcing. It
could be argued that both the provision of appropriate
courses and the reduction of financial barriers have played
a part in encouraging disadvantaged students to stay on in
full-time education after S4 with subsequent improvements
in attainment.
School
versus college
6.4 National qualifications can be studied at schools
and colleges, but the key difference is that schools tend
to provide national courses whereas colleges tend to
provide programmes that are made up of national units. The
vast majority of young people who study national
qualifications in the first and second years after S4 do so
at school, and only a minority study full-time at college.
In many areas schools and colleges collaborate in order to
provide a wider range of subjects than would be possible in
a single institution, and in these areas a student may take
the majority of her/his courses at school together with a
few units at college.
6.5 At the start of this evaluation it was hoped to
examine the different effects of
EMA on national qualifications taken at
school and college. However, geographical and transport
factors are very important in influencing whether young
people can get to college, and consequently levels of
participation varied between areas. There are also
attainment differences arising mainly from the different
curriculum focus of colleges compared with schools:
students at college tend to study programmes of national
units rather than national courses, and progression is
often "horizontal" to include study of new vocational
subjects compared with the "linear" progression within
academic subjects that is most common in schools.
6.6 The Scottish Executive is committed to the
development of more links between schools and colleges, and
with the workplace, to create more vocationally oriented
curricular options that it believes will motivate some
young people. (Scottish Executive 2003). However, this
option is not unproblematic, and some commentators argue
that the provision of lower-level vocational qualifications
for young people who are failing academically is not the
way forward - modern economies depend more and more on
general 'academic' skills, and it is these skills that are
increasingly important for success in the labour market
(Wolf 2001). A recent study of the effects of low
attainment on outcomes at age 22/23 in Scotland finds that
academic qualifications offer more protection against
becoming unemployed, and they also have a more positive
effect on occupational status, than do vocational
qualifications (Howieson and Iannelli 2004).
6.7 The importance of appropriate guidance to ensure
that young people make well-informed choices that are in
their best long-term interests has been emphasised by a
recent report of Her Majesties Inspectorate (
HMIE 2004).
6.8 If we take account of differences in college
participation we find that attainment at school in the
EMA pilot areas rose to a significantly
greater extent than attainment at school in the control
areas. In other words there is a very strong positive
EMA effect on attainment at school. We
have no evidence of an
EMA effect at college.
6.9 The impact of
EMA at college is an area that needs
more research, because colleges often provide a second
chance to young people who have not done well at school.
However, in this study the analysis of national
qualifications at college has been relatively limited
because of data limitations. Practice with respect to the
recording of entries to national qualifications differs
markedly between schools and colleges, and in some cases
leads to duplication of data. There are also some
differences in funding arrangements in colleges which
affect the timing of when entries for national
qualifications are recorded. As a consequence, data
relating to national qualifications taken in colleges is
messier than that for schools, and we do not feel confident
in drawing conclusions about differences in participation
and attainment. We understand that
SQA is in discussion with the
institutions in order to establish a more comparable
recording system.
The effects of disadvantage
6.10 This study confirms that young people from
low-income households tend to have low attainment at
school, and are less likely to participate in
post-compulsory education. The links between low
socio-economic status and low attainment are persistent,
and have long-term consequences of young people's labour
market outcomes. It is evident that ameliorating family
poverty and deprivation, and thus challenging these
persistent links is a key policy objective reflected, for
example, in the Scottish Executive's Social Justice
Strategy and in the National Priorities for Education
(Scottish Executive 1999 and 2000).
6.11 Recent analyses of the Scottish School Leavers'
Survey at age 22/23 show that young people with low
attainment who leave school at the earliest opportunity are
more likely to experience periods of
NEET, whereas they are more likely to
escape from low attainment if they stay on at school after
age 16 (Howieson and Iannelli 2004). The work-based route
to qualifications in Scotland (and indeed elsewhere in the
UK) is less developed than in most other
European countries (
OECD 1999), and although
government-sponsored training through Skillseekers and
modern apprenticeships offer better possibilities for
gaining qualifications than are available through other
employment, low-attaining young people are unlikely to gain
places on such training schemes (Howieson et al 2000).
Recent research has pointed to serious shortcomings with
current government training, including issues of retention,
completion and attainment (Canning 2000, Gallagher et al
2004).
6.12 In this context, policies such as
EMA that encourage young people to
continue their education become particularly important and
offer longer-term benefits by improving young people's
educational and labour market opportunities, thus reducing
their risk of social exclusion.
6.13 The areas selected for piloting the
EMA have concentrations of low-
SES areas, and so most of the schools in
the
EMA samples have relatively
disadvantaged catchments. Similarly, the control samples
used for comparison were selected from schools with similar
disadvantaged catchments from other parts of Scotland. Thus
the evaluation of the
EMA focuses on the experiences of young
people in areas of Scotland with relatively low
SES. That being the case, the overall
positive impact is all the more noteworthy.
The effects of
EMA
6.14 There is clear evidence from
EMA pilots in Scotland, and also in
England, that the
EMA has led to increased levels of
participation in post-compulsory education by young people
with low
SES (Croxford et al 2002, Middleton et
al 2003).
6.15 The current study has found that the effect of the
EMA pilots in Scotland has been to raise
overall levels of entry to national qualifications, and
also to raise entry to national qualifications by young
people with low prior attainment. The increase attributable
to
EMA is over and above the increased
participation arising from the Higher Still reforms.
6.16 These
EMA effects on entry to national
qualifications are found in the first post-compulsory year.
The increase in participation in the second post-compulsory
year did not differ significantly between the
EMA pilots and the control areas.
6.17 A further effect of the
EMA pilots in Scotland has been to raise
overall levels of attainment in national qualifications,
and also to raise levels of attainment in national
qualifications by young people with low prior attainment.
The increase attributable to
EMA is over and above the increased
attainment arising from the Higher Still reforms.
6.18 These findings refute the suggestions of some
critics that the
EMA could depress overall attainment
because disruptive or unmotivated students might be
encouraged to stay on at school just for the money. Far
from depressing attainment, the
EMA pilots have increased overall
attainment to a significantly greater extent than the
control areas. Case studies in the Phase 1 pilot
demonstrated that disruptive pupils were unlikely to
stay-on just because of the
EMA because young people with negative
attitudes to school wanted to leave at the first
opportunity. On the other hand, those youngsters who
received an
EMA to allow them to stay on at school
tended to be motivated to do so, and would have been
prevented by lack of money.
6.19 The enhanced levels of attainment demonstrated by
the
EMA pilots may provide an indication
that the Learning Agreements are successful in encouraging
students to make progress towards their learning targets,
as well as attending regularly. Thus,
EMA can be said to be successful in
supporting students in developing appropriate attitudes to
course work and attendance, as well as reducing financial
barriers to staying on.
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