Parental Social Class and Children's Educational Outcomes: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Millennium Cohort Study and Administrative Data
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Sociology
Abstract
The examination of social class inequalities is a central research theme within the sociology of education. In recent decades, the British education system has undergone a series of fundamental changes. These include changes in the structure and organisation of schools, the curriculum, qualifications, and the school participation age. Despite these changes, marked social class inequalities in educational outcomes are still observed. This is an important area of study because children growing up in less advantaged families have less favourable outcomes, which limit their choices and chances in education and the labour market.
This project combines innovations in data and advances in statistical methods. The project will tackle the difficult challenge of developing suitable measures that reflect educational outcomes and the wide array of school-level qualifications. In addition, the project will appropriately measure social class and other inequalities in contemporary families. A primary analytical aim is to understand social class inequalities in education within a multifaceted longitudinal context. This will be achieved through the application of statistical models.
Administrative educational data is increasingly becoming available. A major limitation of most administrative data is that there are no sociological measures of social class and very few measures of children's backgrounds. A limitation of social survey data is that it lacks detailed educational outcomes, particularly in the early school phase. To overcome these limitations, we take the innovative step of analysing administrative educational data that has been linked to the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). The MCS provides a unique source of contemporary data on the children, parents, households, and siblings, collected via repeated contacts with the same individuals. The MCS is a large scale study, which began with 18,808 cohort members and therefore supports comprehensive statistical analyses. Linked General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) data has very recently been released. This project is therefore a very timely and detailed investigation into contemporary inequalities on a larger scale than has hitherto been possible.
Sociologists have routinely theorised the youth phase using broad metaphors such as pathways and trajectories, although in practice many empirical analyses have not fully exploited data with a temporal dimension. A pioneering aspect of the proposed work will be the development of a better understanding of complex educational inequalities from a sociologically informed life course perspective. An innovative aspect of this work is that it will move beyond the application of routine statistical models and apply more sophisticated models to investigate educational pathways and trajectories. These models will capitalise on the repeated contacts nature of the MCS data.
The project will provide new detailed empirical results relating to social class inequalities. In order to swiftly promulgate results and to rapidly obtain feedback from peers in the research community, results will be presented at national and international conferences. The project will produce three academic journal articles targeted at leading international journals.
The development of more comprehensive analyses of educational pathways and educational inequalities in contemporary Britain will be impactful beyond this project. The research team will host a special impact event showcasing the approach and develop a web-based training resource in collaboration with the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods. A further innovation is that the work will be rendered transparent and reproducible contributing towards a step-change in open social science.
This project combines innovations in data and advances in statistical methods. The project will tackle the difficult challenge of developing suitable measures that reflect educational outcomes and the wide array of school-level qualifications. In addition, the project will appropriately measure social class and other inequalities in contemporary families. A primary analytical aim is to understand social class inequalities in education within a multifaceted longitudinal context. This will be achieved through the application of statistical models.
Administrative educational data is increasingly becoming available. A major limitation of most administrative data is that there are no sociological measures of social class and very few measures of children's backgrounds. A limitation of social survey data is that it lacks detailed educational outcomes, particularly in the early school phase. To overcome these limitations, we take the innovative step of analysing administrative educational data that has been linked to the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). The MCS provides a unique source of contemporary data on the children, parents, households, and siblings, collected via repeated contacts with the same individuals. The MCS is a large scale study, which began with 18,808 cohort members and therefore supports comprehensive statistical analyses. Linked General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) data has very recently been released. This project is therefore a very timely and detailed investigation into contemporary inequalities on a larger scale than has hitherto been possible.
Sociologists have routinely theorised the youth phase using broad metaphors such as pathways and trajectories, although in practice many empirical analyses have not fully exploited data with a temporal dimension. A pioneering aspect of the proposed work will be the development of a better understanding of complex educational inequalities from a sociologically informed life course perspective. An innovative aspect of this work is that it will move beyond the application of routine statistical models and apply more sophisticated models to investigate educational pathways and trajectories. These models will capitalise on the repeated contacts nature of the MCS data.
The project will provide new detailed empirical results relating to social class inequalities. In order to swiftly promulgate results and to rapidly obtain feedback from peers in the research community, results will be presented at national and international conferences. The project will produce three academic journal articles targeted at leading international journals.
The development of more comprehensive analyses of educational pathways and educational inequalities in contemporary Britain will be impactful beyond this project. The research team will host a special impact event showcasing the approach and develop a web-based training resource in collaboration with the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods. A further innovation is that the work will be rendered transparent and reproducible contributing towards a step-change in open social science.
