The impact of tracking by attainment on pupil self-confidence over time : demonstrating the accumulative impact of self-fulfilling prophecy

Francis, Becky and Craig, Nicole and Hodgen, Jeremy and Taylor, Becky and Tereshchenko, Antonina and Connolly, Paul and Archer, Louise (2020) The impact of tracking by attainment on pupil self-confidence over time : demonstrating the accumulative impact of self-fulfilling prophecy. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 41 (5). pp. 626-642. ISSN 0142-5692

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Abstract

The impact of self-fulfilling prophecy in education, and of attainment grouping on pupil self-perception, remain topics of longstanding debate, with important consequences for social in/justice. Focusing on self-confidence, this article draws on survey responses from 9,059 12-13 year olds who were tracked by subject (‘setting’). They provided survey responses when placed in ‘ability’ sets at the start of their secondary schooling, and again late the following year; enabling analysis of impact over time. After controlling for prior attainment, the gap in general self-confidence between students in the top and bottom sets for mathematics is shown to widen over time, and high set students’ self-confidence in English had also grown significantly; although there was not further widening in the cases of self-confidence in mathematics or in general self-confidence between students in the top and bottom sets for English. Implications of these findings for interventions directed at addressing educational disadvantage are discussed. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.