Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answers of 14 May 2019 to Question 251405 and Question 251401, if he will publish that data by (a) GCSE or international GCSE qualification at (i) grade 2/E, (ii) grade F, (iii) grade 1/G and (iv) grade fail and (b) any other qualification at (v) level 1 qualification, (vi) entry level and (vii) fail in 2017-18.

The number of state-funded students in scope for the 16-18 Maths measures and their attainment, split by disadvantage status[1] and prior attainment[2], can be found in tables 1-4, attached. These figures are for 2017/18. This expands on published data within the Department’s statistical release, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results-2017-to-2018-revised.

The number of state-funded students in scope for the 16-18 maths and English progress measures and their attainment, split by disadvantage status, prior attainment, and the type of qualification the student sat in their KS4 study[3], [4] are available in tables 5-8, attached. These figures are for 2017/18.

Disaggregating the published figures has necessitated a slightly different methodology to calculate the number of students with positive progress. In some cases this leads to a negligible difference when totals are compared to the published data within the Department’s statistical release[5].

For figures in 2016/17, tables 1-8 have been replicated in tables 9-16, attached.

[1] Disadvantage status is taken from the census recorded completed for that student’s final year of key stage 4 study.

[2] In previous PQs 251400–251406, prior attainment was given based on three groups (‘entry level or fail’, ‘below grade 3/D’ and ‘grade 3/D’). In the attached tables with information relating to prior attainment points, these points are based on the student’s highest prior attainment in mathematics or English. ‘Entry level or fail’ is synonymous with points 0 and 0.4. ‘Below grade 3 or D’ is synonymous with points 0.8–3.0. ‘Grade 3 or D’ is synonymous with points 4.0. This is the case for all the tables provided.

[3] ‘GCSE or equivalent’ includes students whose highest prior attainment were in a GCSE, International GCSE or level 2 certificate. Qualifications are included in this group because they are all similarly graded on a 9-1 or A*-G scale and are included as part of the condition for funding calculations. ‘Other level 2 qualifications’ includes students whose highest prior attainment was in any other level 2 qualification. This includes level 2 functional skills and free standing maths that are included as part of the condition of funding calculations. This is the case for tables 5-8 and 13-16.

[4] The methodology used means that for a small number of students any entries into maths during their 16-18 study which did not reach the grade 4/C threshold (leaving them in scope), may have led to their prior attainment being reclassified. This will have had no noticeable effect on the overall figures. Due to the methodology used to assign points to English literature and language, a small number of students may be assigned to a different qualification type. This is the case for tables 5-8 and 13-16.