A report published by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) has found that music had the second highest GCSE disadvantage gap in 2020.
COVID-19 and Disadvantage Gaps in England 2020 was published today (10 February) and is the first major study to evaluate the impact of teacher assessed grades on different students.
With a grade gap of 1.37, music comes in second behind combined science (1.61) and ahead of geography (1.35). The data compares the 21 most popular GCSE subjects, which is classed here as those with at least 30,000 pupils in 2020.
What is the ‘disadvantage gap’?
The gap in grades between disadvantaged students and their peers - the ‘disadvantage gap’ - is used as a key measure of social mobility in England, and as an indicator of progress made by the government to reduce inequality in education.
A student is classified as disadvantaged if they claimed free school meals at any point during the past six years.
Relative participation gap in music
The report also charts the relative participation gap - the percentage point difference between the entry of non-disadvantaged and disadvantaged students within a subject.
For music, this shows that disadvantaged pupils are 39 per cent less likely than non-disadvantaged students to take the GCSE, according to 2020 figures.
Similar trends were found in physical education. By way of analysis, the report states: ‘This may be driven by parental investments in music and sport outside of school, such as private music and swimming lessons, that are less accessible for disadvantaged pupils.
‘Disparities in schools’ teacher availability, as well as their ability to provide equipment and facilities (such as musical instruments and playing fields) may also play a role.’
Changes between 2019 and 2020
In 2020, students were awarded results based on ‘centre assessed grades’ (CAGs) due to the pandemic, which resulted in overall grades being ‘much higher’ than in previous years. This was particularly marked in music - the increase in grades awarded at the 4 or above threshold was 14 percentage points.
This ‘by subject’ section of the report also analyses how the disadvantage gaps in 2020 changed since 2019 when students last sat official exams. Music saw the biggest measured gap reduction (-0.16) alongside physics, chemistry and biological sciences.
Looking across all GCSE subjects, the disadvantage gap fell slightly in 2020, although the report points out that, since 2017, progress in narrowing the GCSE disadvantage gap has ‘stalled’.
Fears around teacher bias ‘unfounded’
The report reads: ‘The relative stability in the measured disadvantage gap in 2020 during a period of major educational turmoil is in itself remarkable. This suggests that fears around widespread bias in teacher assessments against disadvantaged pupils were unfounded.’
However, the impact of learning loss on disadvantaged pupils and their peers during the pandemic may become more apparent when analysing grades achieved by students who took exams in summer 2021.
Last month, an annual report for 2020-21 published by the Music in Secondary Schools Trust (MiSST) found that Year 7 and 8 students eligible for pupil premium in ‘MiSST schools’ are performing just as highly as their peers in music.
Commenting on the EPI report published today, MiSST cheif executive Rachel Landon told MT: 'It is utterly heartbreaking to see that the gap in GCSE grades between students in long-term poverty and their better off peers has failed to improve in over 10 long years, and again where you live seems to determine your outcomes. It is all totally unacceptable.
'It is unfortunately unsurprising to me that music had the second highest GCSE disadvantage gap in 2020. Students need to be able to perform to a high standard at GCSE level and disadvantaged children are far less likely to have been given that opportunity, so start off behind their peers. We have seen at MiSST that high quality, sustained tuition for all which is part of a progressive curriculum has helped counter this statistic.'
COVID-19 and Disadvantage Gaps in England 2020 was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and authored by Emily Hunt, Sam Tuckett, David Robinson, Jo Hutchinson and Claire Coleman.
