Value added measures in performance tables: A recap of the main issues for primary schools
Announcing a new report for primary schools that gives a different way of looking at value added.
Progress 8: What if we started at the beginning?
A look at how Progress 8 scores would change if they were calculated purely based on those pupils on-roll in Year 7.
Difficult questions about some schools’ Key Stage 2 results
This research explores Progress 8 scores by feeder primary school – including a resource allowing secondary schools to see their own data.
Why do pupils who went to infant and first schools appear to underperform at Key Stage 4?
Is it real underperformance, or something else? The Datalab team take a look at the issue.
Help us to investigate independent alternative provision
This is a joint blogpost from Education Datalab and The Difference. The Difference is a new training programme, creating the next generation of school leaders, upskilled in supporting pupil mental health and reducing exclusion from school. Leaders spend two years teaching in alternative provision while studying a specialist leadership course, focusing on mental health, safeguarding [...]
Why is the performance of MATs so extreme?
Answer: It isn’t. So why ask the question? Well, among the glut of statistics published by the Department for Education on Thursday was a statistical first release on the performance of multi-academy trusts (MATs) [PDF]. At the top of the second page was this curious chart. At first glance, this looks rather alarming. It seems to [...]
Key Stage 4 performance tables 2017: Closing the gap just got harder
Today’s Key Stage 4 statistical release from the Department for Education shows the gap between disadvantaged pupils and others to be narrowing slightly [PDF]. This is based on the DfE's gap index, which is calculated by ranking pupils according to their English and mathematics grades and then calculating an overall index. It would appear to be [...]
Multi-academy trust league tables 2017: What can we learn from the data? Including a lesson on why we shouldn’t take everything at face value
Along with Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 league tables, the Department for Education has this morning published multi-academy trust league tables – the second year it has published these in full. This analysis looks purely at the DfE’s Key Stage 4 MAT league tables, focusing on those trusts with more than five secondary [...]
KS4 performance tables 2017: Everything we know about coasting schools and floor standard schools
The first table in this post was updated at 17.42 on 25 January 2018 after we noticed – of all things – that percentages in the table did not add up to 100. We very much regret the error. Key Stage 4 league tables – performance tables, to use their proper name – have been published this [...]