Analyse School Performance

By now most of us will have realised that RAISEonline is no longer functioning. For a variety of reasons DFE decided that it was time to move to a new data system- Analyse School Performance. Amongst the many reasons that they gave for discontinuing Raise was their view that most schools now have their own data analysis systems and so only need a more basic set of information. Not all colleagues agree with this, but the decision has been taken anyway.

The first challenge that presents itself is getting into ASP. If you are having problems I suggest following the guide that the DFE have put out through YouTube.

Once in, you will notice that the focus is upon progress data for both primary and secondary schools. For all phases it is important to remember that headline scores are basically placed in three groups- above average, average and below average. It is well worth looking at your confidence interval, since this will determine which group you fall into. It is also possible to see how your scores compare with county and national averages

It is possible to drill down into the data and to see the breakdown for groups and then for individual students. I find scatterplots particularly useful, since they show the distribution of scores across a particular group of students. In my experience they provide a quick and clear way to summarise outcomes and to see the impact of ‘outliers’ (pupils whose score is particularly lower or higher than the rest of the group).

ASP is best explored having looked at the changing approach to data set out in the Ofsted September 2017 Inspection update. Much of what is said will be welcome to schools (for example, emphasising that data needs to be meaningful and that very small groups should not be looked at in isolation). It is also important to emphasise that inspectors are particularly interested in current standards as well as historic data.

Within ASP you can find your Inspection Data Summary Report, the replacement for the Inspection Dashboard. The report will be updated as the year goes along, but I suspect that over time this may become the true replacement for RAISE since it is designed to be downloaded and has the background contextual information that we have all become used to in RAISEonline.

Peter Kent,

Headteacher, Lawrence Sheriff School

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