KEY STAGE 2 TO KEY STAGE 3 VALUE ADDED MEASURE

What do we mean by value added?

Some pupils will always find it difficult to do well in assessment tests. It may be, for example, that they have significant special educational needs. All pupils, however, are capable of making progress and it is important that schools are given recognition for the work that they do with these pupils.

In 2002 we introduced a way of measuring the progress that pupils have made between taking assessment tests when they are aged 10 or 11 (KS2) and assessment tests when they are aged 13 or 14 (KS3). We call this the value added measure. Value added measures are intended to allow comparisons between schools with different pupil intakes.

For example, pupils attending school A may achieve results in KS3 tests above the expected level while pupils at school B may achieve below. In value added terms however, the pupils at school B may have made more progress than pupils relative to their KS2 starting point and therefore have a higher value added `score' than school A.

Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3 measure and coverage

Each pupil's value added score is based on comparing their KS3 performance with the median - or middle - performance of other pupils with the same or similar results at KS2. The individual scores are averaged to give a score for the school that is represented as a number based around 100. This indicates the value the school has added on average for their pupils.

The coverage column shows the percentage of pupils eligible for KS3 assessment that are included in the value added calculation and gives some indication of schools where the value added measures may be unrepresentative. A low coverage indicator means that information was not available to calculate the value added scores of many of the school's pupils, and so these pupils could not be included in the school value added calculation. Where coverage is less than 50%, the value added measure has not been published.

More detailed information about how the value added measure and coverage indicator have been calculated can be found in the Technical Annex.

Interpretation of a school's value added measure

The value added scores are shown as a measure based around 100. Scores above 100 represent schools where pupils on average made more progress than similar pupils nationally, while scores below 100 represent schools where pupils made less progress.

For the KS2 to KS3 value added, a measure of 101 means that on average each of the school's pupils made one term's more progress between KS2 and KS3 than the median for pupils with similar KS2 attainment. Conversely, a score of 99 means that the school's pupils made a term's less progress.

The degree of significance that can be attached to any particular school's value added measure depends, among other factors, on the number of pupils included in the value added calculation. The smaller the number of pupils, the less confidence can be placed on the value added measure as an indicator of whether the effectiveness of a school is significantly above or below average.

As a guide, at KS2 to KS3, schools with 50 or more pupils in the value added measure, scores of 99.2 to 101.0 are broadly average while for schools with 100+ pupils, scores of 99.5 to 100.7 are broadly average. When comparing schools with cohorts of about 50 pupils, differences of up to 1.3 should not be regarded as statistically significant, while for schools with about 100 pupils, differences up to 0.9 should not be regarded as significant.

Particular care should be taken with the results for special schools and other schools where cohort sizes are small. For example, for special schools with 10 pupils, only scores of below 98.9 or above 102.5 are likely to be significantly different from the average.

In the 2003 tables, the top 5% of schools nationally on the KS2 to KS3 VA measure achieved scores of 103.0 or above. The bottom 5% of schools on this measure achieved scores of 97.5 and below. The table below also shows the scores of the schools in the top and bottom quarters.

KEY STAGE 3 RESULTS

The results

This part of the tables shows:

• the number of pupils who were at the end of KS3 and therefore eligible to be assessed in May 2003. All pupils - including those with special educational needs - are eligible for assessment under the National Curriculum when they reach the end of KS3. Most will be aged 14 by the end of the school year. Some, however, will be older or younger;
• the number and percentage of eligible pupils with special educational needs with and without statements; and
• the percentage of eligible pupils in each subject who achieved Level 5 or above in English, mathematics and science tests. Level 5 or 6 is the level of achievement expected of most pupils at the end of KS3.

Percentage of pupils absent or disapplied

Each school's results at Level 5 or above, as set out in the tables, are based on the results of all pupils at the end of KS3, including those who were absent on the day of the test or disapplied from the National Curriculum. A school's results may have been affected by eligible pupils who were absent or disapplied, because such pupils are included in the calculations even though they did not achieve a test level. To help you take this into account, the percentage of eligible pupils who were absent or disapplied is shown alongside the percentage achieving Level 5 or above. The higher the percentage of pupils absent or disapplied, the more a school's results may have been affected by pupils with no test results.

Average point score

The average point score provides a fuller picture of the KS3 achievements of pupils of all abilities. The published percentages indicate whether the pupils of a school mainly fall below Level 5 or achieve above this level, but the average point score allows easier discrimination between schools, particularly those with similar percentages. For example, a score of 35 tells you that on average, pupils who took KS3 tests at the school achieved mostly Level 5 or Level 6.

It is calculated by dividing the total number of points achieved by all pupils eligible for KS3 assessment in each subject by the number of eligible pupils in each subject. If you want more information about how the point score has been calculated, please refer to the Technical Annex at the back of this booklet.