Topic 7: Secondary Source Part 3 - Using secondary sources to investigate education.
1. Topics of study: official statistics in education.
A) Identify 5 issues relevant to education that sociologists might use official statistics to
study.
- Ethnicity, class, gender and educational achievement
- School attendance, truancy and inclusion
- League tables, marketisation and school performance
- Gender and subject choice
- Education, work and training.
B) Access the govt website and find some relevant statistics on school results in your
local area.
- The Blue Coat School is performing the best, with 99% achieving a grade 5 or above
in English and maths GCSEs. Compared to the De La Salle academy only having 7%
of pupils achieve a grade 5 or above in English and Maths.
- Archbishop Blanch and the blue coat school have a well above average attainment 8
score of 0.97.
- 72% of pupils at Liverpool College achieved a grade 5 or above in English and maths
GCSEs.
2. Using official statistics to investigate education.
A) Identify and explain 3 practical advantages of using official statistics to investigate
education.
- Much of this data is published and available to the sociologist, saving them both time
and money. In practice, it would be too costly and time-consuming for a sociologist to
gather information on so many schools themselves.
- Educational statistics allow sociologists to make comparisons between the
achievements of different social groups based on ethnicity, gender and social class.
- Because educational statistics are collected at regular and frequent intervals,
sociologists can make comparisons over time. For example, annually gathered exam
statistics enable the sociologist to see trends in results.
B) Identify and explain 3 practical disadvantages of using official §statistics to
investigate education.
- Governments collect statistics for their own policy purposes and these may not be
the same as those of sociologists. For example, some sociologists are highly
interested in language corresponding with educational attainment.
- Even where the state collects educational statistics of sociological interest, the
definitions of key concepts may differ. For example there may be different definitions
of pupils' social class, some based on parental occupation, whereas Marxists define
this based on property ownership.
C) Explain 1 reason why official statistics on education are highly representative.
All state schools have to complete a school census three times a year. This collects
information on pupils' attendance, ethnicity and gender, the numbers receiving free school
meals and so on. Because these statistics cover virtually every pupil in the country, they are
highly representative.
D) Explain 1 reason why official statistics are good for reliability.
- Positivists favour official statistics because their reliability means that they can be
used to test and retest hypotheses and thus discover cause-and-effect relationships.
For example, statistics on exam results showing social dass differences in
1. Topics of study: official statistics in education.
A) Identify 5 issues relevant to education that sociologists might use official statistics to
study.
- Ethnicity, class, gender and educational achievement
- School attendance, truancy and inclusion
- League tables, marketisation and school performance
- Gender and subject choice
- Education, work and training.
B) Access the govt website and find some relevant statistics on school results in your
local area.
- The Blue Coat School is performing the best, with 99% achieving a grade 5 or above
in English and maths GCSEs. Compared to the De La Salle academy only having 7%
of pupils achieve a grade 5 or above in English and Maths.
- Archbishop Blanch and the blue coat school have a well above average attainment 8
score of 0.97.
- 72% of pupils at Liverpool College achieved a grade 5 or above in English and maths
GCSEs.
2. Using official statistics to investigate education.
A) Identify and explain 3 practical advantages of using official statistics to investigate
education.
- Much of this data is published and available to the sociologist, saving them both time
and money. In practice, it would be too costly and time-consuming for a sociologist to
gather information on so many schools themselves.
- Educational statistics allow sociologists to make comparisons between the
achievements of different social groups based on ethnicity, gender and social class.
- Because educational statistics are collected at regular and frequent intervals,
sociologists can make comparisons over time. For example, annually gathered exam
statistics enable the sociologist to see trends in results.
B) Identify and explain 3 practical disadvantages of using official §statistics to
investigate education.
- Governments collect statistics for their own policy purposes and these may not be
the same as those of sociologists. For example, some sociologists are highly
interested in language corresponding with educational attainment.
- Even where the state collects educational statistics of sociological interest, the
definitions of key concepts may differ. For example there may be different definitions
of pupils' social class, some based on parental occupation, whereas Marxists define
this based on property ownership.
C) Explain 1 reason why official statistics on education are highly representative.
All state schools have to complete a school census three times a year. This collects
information on pupils' attendance, ethnicity and gender, the numbers receiving free school
meals and so on. Because these statistics cover virtually every pupil in the country, they are
highly representative.
D) Explain 1 reason why official statistics are good for reliability.
- Positivists favour official statistics because their reliability means that they can be
used to test and retest hypotheses and thus discover cause-and-effect relationships.
For example, statistics on exam results showing social dass differences in
