Narrowing the achievement gap between children from rich and poor backgrounds is a priority for policymakers across the UK. With increasing divergence on schools’ policy since devolution in 1999, there is great interest in how educational inequalities compare across the UK. There is particular interest in comparisons between England and Wales given the shared historical context and similar set of institutions. However, reforms to GCSEs and performance measures across England and Wales have made comparisons between the two nations extremely difficult using published data.

This report makes use of similar administrative data for the two countries to derive consistent measures of the disadvantage gap at GCSE level. This makes it the first report to provide a comprehensive comparison of educational inequalities across the two nations over the last decade.

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