̽��ֱ��

̽��ֱ��study was conducted by Cambridge Assessment at the request of the ̽��ֱ��’s Outreach Steering Group, which takes a role in coordinating access and widening participation activities for the ̽��ֱ�� and Colleges. It is based on the 2006 cohort of A Level students in England.

Although commentators have speculated that state school students are being advised or allowed to take combinations of A-Level subjects that reduce their chances of winning places at leading universities, the Cambridge Assessment research shows that only 1,011 of the 24,580 AAA students in the study took A-Level combinations that included more than one subject on the Cambridge list of 20 A-Levels that the ̽��ֱ�� believes, taken together, provide a less effective preparation for very academic courses. Moreover, 224 of these 1,011 students were at independent schools.

But if choice of A Level is not as big an issue as previously thought, analysis of the report by Geoff Parks, Director of Admissions for the Cambridge Colleges, and Richard Partington, Senior Tutor of Churchill College and Chair of the Outreach Steering Group, shows that achieving the highest grades is: state sector students constitute only 64% of those achieving AAA.

For entry to some university subjects, however, the figures show the difficulty is more serious. While in most subjects pupils from state schools and colleges account for around 63% of those getting three As, there are some notable exceptions. Only 47% of those getting AAA including a language attend state schools. One university subject where advice about A -Level choice does seem to be a problem is Economics: only 52% of those whose three As include Economics or Business Studies and Maths are state educated.

Geoff Parks says: “As Maths is essential for many leading Economics courses (and careers), this figure raises concerns about whether budding Economists at state schools and colleges are getting the sort of detailed advice they should be.”

Analysis of the research shows that those least likely to achieve three As at A Level are students from deprived areas. ̽��ֱ��highest performing local authority, judged by the number of students achieving AAA in subject combinations that make them viable Cambridge applicants, is Reading with 27%. ̽��ֱ��lowest is Southwark, where none of the 111 state-sector A-Level students got AAA in an appropriate combination in 2006.

Such differences are not necessarily explained by the structure of secondary education in each area. Although many of the best performing local authorities in terms of AAA performance retain grammar schools, there are clear exceptions: Herefordshire (in 6th place in the “league” at 15.2%), Kirklees (11th at 13.1%) and Cambridgeshire (13th at 12.2%) benefit from high-performing sixth form colleges; Sheffield (17th at 10.9%) has some excellent comprehensives; and Medway (97th at 5.6%) retains grammar schools but is much further down the table.

Richard Partington says: “ ̽��ֱ��real reasons for the differences are almost certainly social and economic rather than educational. ̽��ֱ��proportion of maintained-sector students achieving top A-Level grades is patently closely correlated with the socio-economic demographic of the local authority.”

He adds: “Social mobility through education in the United Kingdom will continue to struggle to improve until the pernicious link between deprivation and educational attainment is broken. This Cambridge Assessment study of A-Level achievement provides evidence of the symptoms at age 18; the cure has to lie in much earlier educational interventions in our young people’s lives.”

��