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 [...]
KS2 performance tables 2017: Ofsted ratings and floor standards
We’ve already looked at the number of schools judged to be below the floor standard, and to be coasting, based on the Key Stage 2 performance tables data published this morning. But, looking a little deeper, how stable are these classifications – how many schools that ended up in one of these groups last year [...]
KS2 performance tables 2017: The reason schools ended up below the floor standard this year
Key Stage 2 league tables – performance tables, to use their proper name – have been published this morning, identifying those schools below the government’s floor standard, and those judged to be coasting. So what can we say about the schools in these two groups? And are junior schools still more likely to fall into [...]
KS2 performance tables 2017: Three things from this morning’s data
Today’s Key Stage 2 Statistical First Release provides further information on the 2017 Key Stage 2 results which we first wrote about here. This includes school-level data, plus data on the performance of different groups of pupils. There are some interesting differences in progress scores between ethnic groups There is much greater variation in the [...]