Primary School Attainment Data

Last week saw the release of the gorvernments figures on school performance, followed by coverage in the media, like the guardian.


Apparently there are more than 16,000 primary schools in total (my spreadsheet has 15695). and I'll look at the data with particular attention to a handful of statistics released with the data.

These are:

• 1310 schools failing on English and Maths
• 1/3 failed to reach level 4 in reading, writing and mathematics combined
• the proportion of pupils achieving the expected level in English is 82% and Maths 80%

Whether or not a school is deemed as failing is whether it is above or below a `floor' level. A primary school will be below the floor if

1. 60 per cent of its pupil not achieving level 4 or above in Eng and maths combined
2. it is below the England median for progression by two levels in English
3. and it is below the England median for progression by two levels in maths 

Its not very clear from the data and statement exactly what numbers are used so its not straightforward to duplicate the results. I've taken my best guess at some of the figures.
From my calculations, the number of schools below the floor is 1459. This is almost exactly the 1310 given and 150 which may just be a coincidence.
The performance numbers are split into deprived pupils denoted FSM&CLA (Free School Meals and Children Looked After) and others. I've combined these figures for this total number.

 

Generally speaking, using an average for a `floor' seems a bit odd to me. Obviously half of the pupils will be below the average. This doesn't seem very disciminatory or sensible.


Conspicuous by its absence (again!), there is no mention of random variation unfortunately.