measuring educational achievement Flashcards
educational achievement
Refers to the qualifications achieved at the end of Formal Education (e.g. GCSE’s, degrees, A-levels, diploma’s, doctorates,
certificates)
differential educational achievement
Refers to the differing levels of Educational Success individuals might achieve within the education
system, when studied across
different social groupings
internal factors
Factors inside of school which impact a students educational
achievement.
external factors
Factors outside of school which
impact a students educational achievement.
official statistics
Data that is collected and published by government or government agencies.
methods used to measure educational achievement
*raw GCSE grades
*university acceptances
*Attainment 8
Raw GCSE grades
- Until 2017 educational achievement was measured by:
The number of GCSE grades A-C a student achieved and the number of GCSE grades A-C including English and MAths. - Schools were judges on the % of students in their school that achieve these two criteria.
- After 2017 this changed to the number of 5-9 grades a student achieved including ash’s and English and in general.
Attainment 8
- Introduced in 2016 - measures a students average grade across 8 subjects.
- 8 subjects fit into 3 groups:
- English and maths - double weighted meaning they count twice. When English Lit and Lang are taken the highest of the 2 double weight. The other joins the open group.
- English Baccalaureate - highest scores from sciences, computer science, geography, history and languages.
- Open group - any remaining GCSEs and other approved academic e.g. arts or vocational qualifications.
- An attainemnt 8 score is calculated by adding up points for the top 8 subjects and dividing by 100.
- Students don’t have to take 8 subjects but score 0 for any unfiltered slots.
University acceptances
- Comes from UCAS data released after all students are placed.
- Looks at different social groups to see differences in acceptance of places at university. NOT offers/ applications.
Issues with these measures of achievement
- Open to manipulation by schools/ government.
- Attainment 8 unfairly disadvantages those with SEND who might take fewer GCSEs.
- M/c and U/C are more likely to go to private schools who dont do GCSEs but IGCSEs or international Baccalaureate which aren’t included in official statistics.
