Black British Literacy: a Study of Reading Attainment of London Black Children from 8 to 15 Years

Abstract

Summary This paper presents data from the Inner London Education Authority Literacy Survey on the reading attainment of black British students. 2 2The views expressed in this article are the author's own, and do not necessarily represent those of the ILEA. The progress of these pupils, who formed part of a cohort of London school‐children, was studied from the age of eight to school‐leaving age. Black British attainment was significantly lower at the age of eight years, and by school‐leaving age was relatively lower still. Unlike most other ethnic minority groups black British attainment was only marginally affected by length of education in this country. Social deprivation, however, together with restricted education and attendance at an EPA school probably accounted for about half the difference between the scores of the white and black British: the other half of the differences remained unexplained. Various alternatives for action are discussed: waiting for the passage of time, social engineering, and remedial teaching at secondary school level have proved to be inadequate solutions. The stability, even slight deterioration, of attainment over time points to a need for the focus of activity to be the early years of primary schooling.