Volume 26, Number 4,April 2017

Volume 26, Number 4,April 2017

Revision

Understanding data

Joan Garrod

Look carefully at the following data. They were all taken from a report by the Sutton Trust looking at the ways in which parents differed when choosing a school for their child.

Use the different data to answer the questions at the end. The full report can be viewed at:
Francis, B. and Hutchings, M., ‘Parent Power?’ The Sutton Trust, December 2013

Item A

The findings are based on an online survey of 1,173 parents of children aged 5–18 years who attended school, conducted in November 2012 by the polling organisation YouGov. Analysis was conducted by the authors of the Sutton Trust report. Only parents who resided with their children were invited to take part. Half the respondents were male and half female. Responses were analysed by social grade or group, using social class scales A–E based on occupation.

Item B

Parents were divided into four groups (see below) dependent on the number of sources they consulted when deciding to choose a school for their child.

Limited choosers used only one or none of the listed sources of information. This group were mainly, but not exclusively, working class, ranging from 10% of social group B to over 40% of social group E.
Partially informed choosers used more sources than the previous group, but did not generally use independent documentary sources.
Informed choosers— those who used at least one independent documentary source of information and one experiential source.This group made up over 60% of middle-class parents, and just under half of working-class parents.
Hyper-choosers— a sub-group within the informed choosers.Those who used five or more sources of information. A higher percentage of middle-class than of working-class respondents were found in this group (ranging from 38% of group A to 13% of group D).

Figure 1 Percentage of respondents using various sources of information in choosing schools, by social group (N = 1,173)

Figure 2 Percentage of hyper-choosers (respondents who indicated that they used five or more of the listed sources of information in choosing schools), by social group (N = 1,173)

Figure 3Percentage of respondents with a child at a state school in social group indicating that they have used listed strategies (N = 1,090)

Questions

1Identify two advantages and two disadvantages of the method used as described in Item A.

2What percentage of social group E were ‘limited choosers’ (Item B)?

3Into which group did more than 60% of middle-class parents fall (Item B)?

4How many sources of information did the hyper-choosers use (Item B)?

5What was the most frequently used source of information for parents from class A (Figure 1)?

6Approximately what percentage of parents from groups D and E used school prospectuses as a source of information (Figure 1)?

7Approximately what percentage of class A and B parents used league tables or attainment data when making a choice (Figure 1)?

8Suggest two reasons for the differences in class groups shown by Figure 2.

9According to Figure 3, what was the most common strategy used by parents in classes A and B to get their child into a ‘good school’?

10According to Figure 3, what was the least-used strategy by parents in class E?

11According to Figure 3, which group was least likely to attend church to get their child into a church school?

12Identify and briefly discuss two reasons for some of the differences between class groups shown in Figure 3.

Joan Garrod is a managing editor of Sociology Review.