Jean Esther Floud CBE (née McDonald; 3 November 1915 – 28 March 2013) was a prominent educational sociologist and later an academic.
[1] She was born Jean Esther McDonald to working-class parents and went to primary and secondary schools in her home town of Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex.
[2] She studied sociology at the London School of Economics (LSE) under David Glass, TH Marshall, Morris Ginsberg and Karl Mannheim.
[1] Social Class and Educational Opportunity gave evidence that the 11-plus exam for grammar school entrance was unfair to working-class children.
Floud wrote that "within wide limits, the educability of children is determined by the subtle interaction of the social influences of home and school".
[4] Floud was a member of the committee that produced the Franks Report (1957) which proposed reforms to ensure a more efficient administration of Oxford University.