Mathematics: Education

(asked on 18th July 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 21 June 2018 to Question 153838, how many students in scope for the 16-18 maths progress measure from (a) disadvantaged and (b) non-disadvantaged backgrounds did not enter an approved maths qualification in 2016-17 by each prior attainment grade.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 23rd July 2018

The number of students in scope for the 16-18 English and maths progress measures are published as part of official Department for Education statistics. These can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results-2016-to-2017-revised. The main text can be found in SFR03/2018, Section 5.

These statistics feature breakdowns by prior attainment groupings and disadvantage status. As the published data only shows the average progress point score, we have expanded on the published data by adding in the number of students that achieved a grade 4 or above as well as adding the number of students that made positive progress.

The English and maths progress measure is based on achievement of GCSEs and of approved stepping stone qualifications. These stepping stone qualifications include functional skills, free standing maths, English for speakers of other languages and AQA use of maths.

Each student’s exam results are assigned a capped point score. The point scores range from 0 to 8 points, depending on the type of qualification taken and the grade achieved by the student. For example, GCSE points range from 1 point for a grade G up to 8 points for an A* grade. Stepping stone qualifications do not attract as many points as GCSEs and typically fall between GCSE grades on the points scale. For example, a level 1 functional skill qualification is equal to 2.5 points. A fail in any qualification is worth 0 points, and students that do not enter any approved exams during 16-18 study automatically score -1 for the progress measure[1].

  1. Information on how grades are assigned point scores can be found in the 16 to 18 technical guidance.
  2. There is no data (N/A) for prior attainment scores 0.8 and 1.7 in English because there are currently no qualifications assigned these scores.

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