Find out below how you as our members can use this document to help us drive the change we all want to see.
The Report Card 2021 - What this document is
This report is a synthesis of research and evidence on educational inequality plus a summary of some of the Impactful work that is being done across Fair Education Alliance membership to address these issues.
We want you, our network, to use it in two ways:
• Top-down policy change: There is an important window for Government policy in autumn 2021 for taking action to address inequalities in education within the Comprehensive Spending Review and autumn Budget, which will determine spending priorities going forward. This report can be used a summary for everyone involved in education to use to work with policymakers to influence that agenda and for policymakers themselves to use as a summary of the collective calls to action from experts across the sector.
• Bottom-up action from educationalists, charities and businesses: Recognising that those in education, business and the third sector must also take action, this report can be used to influence our own practice and philanthropic efforts. In Section 4 we showcase the latest action from our Scaling Impact Award Winners.
Key takeaways and messages for you to use in your conversations:
• Research and evidence from a wide range of reports from across Fair Education Alliance membership organisations and beyond shows inequality in education was already worsening pre-pandemic, and this has been exacerbated in the last year by the impacts of Covid. (See Section 1)
• The severity of the situation presents a moment of opportunity for us to act. We should not fall into narratives such as 'a lost generation' but instead seize our chance to address long standing issues in the system.
The Fair Education Alliance continues to advocate for a more inclusive education system which:
• Develops the whole child including wellbeing, skills and attainment (see page 20)
• Prepares young people for accessing employment further education and training (see page 21)
• Engages parents and communities (see page 22)
• Supports teachers and leaders serving disadvantaged communities (see page 23)
• This vision is already being driven by a wide range of Fair Education Alliance organisations from across businesses, charity, social enterprise and the third sector (outlined in Section 2). These efforts need to be supported, nurtured and grown.
• Alongside these cross society efforts Government support is also required to tackle inequality in education. Furthermore, we recommend that the changes to the education system we call for are at the heart of the current Governments "levelling up" agenda. Delivering this, in partnership with wider society, will enable the Government to achieve its outcomes.
• The Fair Education Alliance is not a research institute but instead collates and amplifies the recommendations of all our member organisations. Many of our member organisations have made recommendations for Government (see page 18) related to tackling inequality in education. In June we wrote this letter to the Prime Minister with a summary of asks around recovery spend from our membership.
• In this report we have chosen to echo the recommendations made in the recent Teach First Manifesto as it aligned with many of the wider Alliance's asks and our earlier letter. (See Section 3) We have built on Teach First's recommendations and interpreted them with our own language and framing. Links to their original report have been provided.