School data on attendance and exclusions could be monitored more closely in the future to assess whether the “poverty-related attainment gap” is being closed.
The proposal is contained in a consultation published by the Scottish government that also floats the possibility of “positive destinations” statistics being given more prominence in tracking progress.
Positive destinations figures show the proportion of students in education, training or employment after leaving school, but are controversial because all types of employment count - even, potentially, zero-hours contracts.
The consultation, which was published yesterday and closes on 18 July, is looking at the kinds of data that should be collected to track education improvement, as well as the key measures that should be used to assess progress in closing the attainment gap.
Currently, attendance and exclusion data are among 15 “sub-measures” in the National Improvement Framework (NIF) - the government’s tool for driving education improvement and tracking progress in closing the attainment gap - but the consultation asks if they should be “promoted to key measures”.
It adds: “There are currently four sub-measures covering attendance and exclusion in both primary and secondary schools, and there is a clear pattern of higher exclusion rates and lower attendance for children living in the most deprived areas. This is particularly the case at secondary school and prompts the question of whether to promote the two secondary school sub-measures. If children are not at school, then it is far more difficult to take the steps necessary to close the attainment gap.”
Last year, the government came in for criticism from auditor general Stephen Boyle, who said there was too much focus on attainment when it came to judging the success of the education system and that a “broader suite of indicators” was needed, given it was accepted that “schools are about more than just the [Scottish Qualifications Authority - SQA] exam results”.
Mr Boyle’s comments followed the publication of an Audit Scotland report in March 2021, which said that the poverty-related attainment gap in education remained wide, despite recent progress.
An Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) review published in June, meanwhile, said: “In addition to the National Improvement Framework’s measures of literacy and numeracy, other metrics informing progress on the four capacities are necessary, especially around health and wellbeing, enjoyment of learning and other key competencies.”
The new government consultation says that the health and wellbeing census will provide “important new data about children and young people’s wellbeing” - although its rollout has been hampered by concerns over explicit questions and also pupils’ privacy.
The government also suggests two ways in which “wider achievement” might be recorded: through a new “all SQA qualifications” measure or through a separate measure of attainment in vocational qualifications.
However, it appears to rule out the inclusion of awards such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award - which Professor Ken Muir’s recent report on Scottish education reform said should be at the forefront of a “broader curriculum” - because access to such awards “may not be equal”, so “it would be difficult to use this data to measure the attainment gap in the same way as for other measures”. But the consultation document adds that “the data could be included more widely in the NIF”.
