2021/04/13 by Lucy Prior, Prior, Lucy, John Jerrim +5
Decision Sciences · Social Sciences · #Applications (stat.AP) #Educational Assessment and Improvement #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Parental Involvement in Education #School Choice and Performance
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2104.06299
openalex publication_date 2021/04/13 · openalex created_date 2022/10/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
School performance measures are published annually in England to hold schools to account and to support parental school choice. This article reviews and evaluates the Progress 8 secondary school accountability system for state-funded schools. We assess the statistical strengths and weaknesses of Progress 8 relating to: choice of pupil outcome attainment measures; potential adjustments for pupil input attainment and background characteristics; decisions around which schools and pupils are excluded from the measure; presentation of Progress 8 to users, choice of statistical model, and calculation of statistical uncertainty; and issues related to the volatility of school performance over time, including scope for reporting multi-year averages. We then discuss challenges for Progress 8 raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. Six simple recommendations follow to improve Progress 8 and school accountability in England.