This is part six in a series of blogposts exploring long-term disadvantage. Other posts in the series can be found here. In previous blogposts in this series we have shown that the impact of disadvantage on attainment and progress varies according to the percentage of their time in school that a pupil has been eligible for [...]
This is part five in a series of blogposts exploring long-term disadvantage. Other posts in the series can be found here. We looked recently at the Progress 8 scores of long-term disadvantaged pupils – those who are eligible for free school meals (FSM) for 90% or more of their time in schools – and concluded that: [...]
This is part three in a series of blogposts exploring long-term disadvantage. Other posts in the series can be found here. Some of you might remember the 1996 TV series in which Christopher Ecclestone plays Nicky Hutchinson. As an impatient politician he argues that “Tomorrow is too late”. The Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) has today issued [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Minimum performance standards for 16-18 Level 3 (A-Level and equivalent) attainment were first introduced in 2016. Separate standards were defined for academic qualifications (primarily A-Levels) and applied general qualifications (primarily BTECs). The standards are based on value added measures that control for pupil attainment at Key Stage 4. For academic qualifications, the minimum standard in [...]
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 [...]
Last year at the Schools NorthEast Annual Summit I was delighted to talk to primary teachers and learn how they had become a high-performing region. Today I had less happy conversation with their secondary colleagues about why they are falling behind at GCSE. As the chart below shows, the North East has always scored poorly [...]
The EBacc continues to be ignored There was a slight fall in the percentage of pupils entered for all five subjects making up the English Baccalaureate (EBacc). Even so, the percentage entered for the science and humanities components actually increased. The fall in the headline EBacc entry rate was entirely due to a drop in [...]
