Intelligence Tests, Social Class and Selection for Secondary Schools

The everyday classificatory practices of selective schooling: a fifty‐year retrospective

“…However, accompanied by a rigid system of selection based on an end-of-primary 'intelligence' test, it classified children towards three different types of state secondary education: grammar, technical and modern. Those in favour of non-selective, comprehensive education argued that despite individual exceptions it re-constructed the existing class conditions and interests (Himmelweit, 1954;Banks, 1955;Floud & Halsey, 1961). The argument continues that despite small and initial changes, the Act maintained classed (and I would argue, gendered and raced) relations (Kerckhoff et al, 1996;McCulloch, 1998;Simon, 1999;Fitz et al, 2006).…”

“…This approach, influenced by the work of British psychologist Cyril Burt (1959), was consistently critiqued (Vernon, 1952;Simon, 1953Simon, , 1971Floud & Halsey, 1961;Kamin, 1974Kamin, , 1981Gould, 1981). This led to the belief that there was little that education could do to improve that intelligence (McCulloch, 1998), and it provided the rationale for the 'tripartite' system, the classification into grammar, modern and technical.…”

“…19-20). The eleven-plus made little change to the percentage of working-class children entering grammar school (Floud & Halsey, 1961). It was, however, critical to the discourse of objectivity, meritocracy and opportunity.…”

English Model of Gifted and Talented Education: Policy, Context and Challenges

“…This is something similar to what happened when intelligence testing was abandoned by most local authorities in the 1960s, and access to selective tracks in comprehensive schools came to rely more on teacher recommendation. The evidence then showed that as testing was abandoned, children of middle class parents increased their representation in selective tracks to the disadvantage of children from the working class (Ford 1969, Floud andHalsey, 1957).…”

Grouping of Pupils in Secondary School Classrooms: Possible Links between Pedagogy and Learning

“…These levels of achievement have been analysed by sociologists, who have commented on achievement mediated by social class, gender and ability through mechanisms such as control and legitimisation of knowledge and social capital. Persistent social class differences have been identified systematically as early as Floud and Halsey's (1957) survey of social class and educational achievement; with children of working class origin performing less well than middle class children. Further studies that identify differentiation in school achievement have been undertaken with regard to gender and ethnicity (Fuller, 1984;Mahony, 1985;Myhill, 2002).…”