UK: Number of white working class boys taking AS or A-levels 'shockingly low'

Article here. Excerpt:

'White boys from poor families in deprived areas face the double disadvantage of poverty and geography that means they abandon education earlier than their peers in better-off areas, according to new research by Oxford University.

The findings, commissioned by the Sutton Trust, reveal the powerful and long-lasting influence of background in shaping educational outcomes and suggest that income is only partly responsible for the variations in levels of education by different groups.

The research found that just 29% of white working class boys from deprived neighbourhoods in England go on to take A-levels or AS-levels in sixth form, compared with 46% of white boys who came from the same economic background but lived in more affluent areas.'