Without a GCSE paper having been taken by a single student, a third of 16-year-olds this summer have been awarded grades 1, 2 and 3 in English and mathematics. It is the same every year and is a withering indictment of our system of “comparable outcomes”.
It remains the case that “the long tail of underachievement” casts a shadow over UK education which we need to address in a fresh and radical fashion.
We do not have to fail a third, for two-thirds to pass. It is not a necessity but a political choice. So system change is needed – and quickly.
What do we do in the meantime – this academic year – to beat against the current, to improve the lifelong learning opportunities of the forgotten third? Here are four key pillars for change which my new book – The Forgotten Third – proposes (2020; see also ASCL, 2019).
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