Why do care leavers underachieve in education?

I deliberately haven’t used the image of a university in this blog because I believe that educational achievement is highly individual which is why I don’t use the word success.  I also believe that  care leavers/care experienced adults  have a right to self determine their achievements rather than have goals/targets/outcomes imposed on them by others.

When I reviewed the literature on educational achievement for care leavers/care experienced adults I found that there were wide variations in the level of educational achievement for care experienced adults, but the majority achieved qualifications at the level of secondary and further education.  Whilst some care experienced adults had achieved better results than the general population overall educational achievements were lower than average (Mc Kenzie, 2003; Duncalf, 2010; Beuhler et al., 2000; CLAN, 2011; Jackson & Martin, 1998).

Why is educational success seen as important?

Educational success was seen by researchers as a possible escape…