Streaming (RLE Edu L Sociology of Education) : An Education System in Miniature

In this volume a streamed school is studied in detail and parents’ responses are recorded. Eleven plus is (and has been) under criticism, but many children are selected by a ‘seven plus’ because they are streamed into A, B or C classes. Few children escape the label once it is pinned on them – less than six in one hundred change their stream. The study shows that on a national sample the date on which a child is born – irrespective of his ability – affects his or her stream at the age of 7 and his results at eleven plus. Finally ten streamed schools are compared, academically and socially, with ten unstreamed schools. In the final chapters the author makes practical proposals by which primary schools could recognise and increase the flow of gifted children.

In this volume a streamed school is studied in detail and parents’ responses are recorded. Eleven plus is (and has been) under criticism, but many children are selected by a ‘seven plus’ because they are streamed into A, B or C classes. Few children escape the label once it is pinned on them – less than six in one hundred change their stream. The study shows that on a national sample the date on which a child is born – irrespective of his ability – affects his or her stream at the age of 7 and his results at eleven plus. Finally ten streamed schools are compared, academically and socially, with ten unstreamed schools. In the final chapters the author makes practical proposals by which primary schools could recognise and increase the flow of gifted children.