Remit
The Education and Culture Committee undertook work on the educational attainment gap. Further details are available in this news release.
The Committee took evidence at five meetings and wrote to the Cabinet Secretary to ask questions on the main points arising from these sessions. More information is available under the 'Evidence' section below.
Other related work
The Committee undertook a separate piece of work on the attainment of school pupils with a sensory impairment:
Read more about our work on the attainment of school pupils with a sensory impairment
Evidence
The Committee received the following evidence:
Read the Official Reports of the evidence sessions
On 26 January 2016, the Committee held an informal discussion on the educational attainment gap with a range of stakeholders.
Scottish Government correspondence
The Education and Culture Committee wrote to the Scottish Government (below) to ask various questions about its approach to tackling the educational attainment gap:
The Scottish Government responded to these questions on 16 January 2015.
The Committee wrote to the Scottish Government for further information on the Scottish Government's new £100m Attainment Scotland Fund.
The Committee wrote to the Scottish Government highlighting the main issues arising from the evidence sessions.
The Scottish Government responded to the Committee's letter on the main issues arising from the evidence sessions.
Parent survey
In connection with Session 3 (above), the Committee ran an online survey seeking parents' views about how schools work with them to support their children's learning.
The survey is now closed.
The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) has produced a report on the survey's findings.