At the heart of the debate about state-provided education in the UK lies a shocking fact: one child in five leaves school in England without basic skills in literacy and numeracy. Despite the best efforts of reformers and rapidly improving results in academies and elsewhere, even some of the best schools are struggling to help the 'tail' - the lowest-achieving twenty or thirty per cent of pupils. Throughout Britain, other schools, local authorities and even regions are trapped in a rut of low ambition and poor performance and seem unable to address the problem. The young people in the tail will find it hard to progress to the qualifications they need to get good jobs, and are unlikely to find secure employment. Their blighted lives are a personal tragedy, and one that imposes a wider economic and social cost that increases with every generation. In this book, eighteen of Britain's leading educational practitioners and specialists examine why our education system is persistently failing so many young people, and they propose a range of practical and achievable solutions. This urgently needed and powerfully argued manifesto demands the closest attention and will galvanise public debate on education.

Paul Marshall is a passionate and brilliantly effective crusader for extending opportunity to the most disadvantaged. [This] book is a compelling, at times moving, and immensely persuasive manifesto. -- Rt Hon. Michael Gove MP
Eradicating the tail of poor education is the key priority for our schools. This book tells us how to do it. -- Lord Adonis
This is an absolutely fantastic book which addresses the biggest challenge in English education. The essays shine new light on the problem of England's tail of low performance, and challenge policy-makers and schools to rise to this challenge. -- Rt Hon. David Laws MP

Paul Marshall is the chair of ARK (Absolute Return for Kids) Schools, a children's charity that currently operates eighteen primary and secondary schools in areas of the UK with predominantly poor children. The Tail contains contributions from: Chris Amadeo, Dale Bassett, Sophy Blakeway, Kevan Collins, Frank Field, Chris Husbands, Tina Isaacs, Danny Kruger, Tim Leunig, Stephen Machin, Paul Marshall, Chris Paterson, Olmo Silva, Charlie Taylor, James Toop, Tim Weedon, Patrick White and Gill Wyness