Mind the gap: What are national assessments really telling us about vocabulary and disadvantaged students?

Nationally, Standard Assessment Tests (SATS) are administered at the end of Key Stage 1 in May of Year 2 (age 7) and at the end of Key Stage 2 in May of Year 6 (age 11). In 2023, in the reading assessment, only 60% of disadvantaged pupils reached the expected standard as compared to 78% for other pupils (DfE, 2023). This is significant as 30% of pupils at the end of Key Stage 2 were classed as disadvantaged (defined as those who were registered as eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years, children looked after by a local authority or have left local authority care in England and Wales through adoption, a special guardianship order, a residence order or a child arrangement order – DfE, 2023).
Learning to read and write involves all aspects of language structure and use: phonology, graphology, vocabulary and grammar (Crystal, 2020), but it is vocabulary that is perhaps the strongest determinant of reading success (Biemiller, 2003). Quigley (2018, p. 2) believes ‘[b]y closing the vocabulary gaps for children in our classrooms with their peers, we can offer them the vital academic tools for school success, alongside the capability to communicate with confidence in the world beyond the school gates’. The UK government’s primary ambition for improving social mobility through education is to close the vocabulary the gap in early years (DfE, 2017). The vocabulary gap is where disadvantaged children fall behind (in some cases a full year and a half) their more affluent peers in early language development contributing to long-lasting effects on their social mobility (DfE, 2017).
This article will examine how current practices in compulsory schooling may contribute to a ‘vocabulary gap’ which has repercussions in terms of reading comprehension for disadvantaged students as seen in SATS and subsequent GCSE exam scores.