The progression guidance document from the Department for Education is designed to help schools identify the sort of targets they should be setting based on the level of the pupil. The government has set out basic rules for targeting;

2 levels progress in key stage 2 and 3 levels progress across key stages 3 and 4.

These basic general rules however do not always fit with the data the government has collected. The government has collected data from schools throughout England and have summarised the data. The data shows the progress made by pupils in schools comparing the results at the end of one key stage to the results at the end of the next key stage.

The data collected from schools and has some anomalies in and to make working with document easier, B Squared have created a spread sheet looking at the data for the three subjects at each key stage and looking for patterns in the data. This has allowed us to create general rules that can be used making the target setting process easier:

Spread sheet showing data and simplified rules

Document explaining the spread sheet

General rules for KS2 Targets

P1i - P2i make around 1 level progress

P2ii - P4 make around 2 levels progress

P5 - P7 make around 3 levels progress

P8 and above make around 2 levels progress

General rules for KS3 Targets

P1i - P4 make around 1 level progress

P5 and above make around 2 levels progress

General rules for KS4 Targets

P1i - P2ii = 0.5 level progress

P3i - and above = 1 level progress

The general rules above meet or exceed the government’s basic rule apart from in the very low p levels.

The progression guidance contains lots of information for schools on setting targets. The first important bit of information is that schools should not set targets just using the progression guidance information. They should use information from other sources, the most useful information to use when setting targets is their previous attainment.

One paragraph that is repeated twice in the document is that a pupil achieving the upper quartile target may not be making good enough progress, and a pupil only achieving the lower quartile target may be making good progress. This is due to their previous progress and why schools need to look at the pupil’s previous achievements before setting targets.

The progression guidance document is available on our site. We have highlighted sections that teachers need to pay attention to, advising them on the process of setting targets, setting realistic targets and why some pupils may not achieve their targets.

How does B Squared fit in with the Progression Guidance?

As stated previously before you set a target you should look at their previous attainment to see how challenging the UQ (upper quartile) target is. If their expected progression is going to be above the UQ target, you will need to set a higher target for the pupil. If their expected progression is going to be below the UQ target, you may need to adjust the target down to a more suitable yet challenging target, you will also need to look at why the child is not making the progress and if needed identify ways to raise the progression with a more adequate provision.

Assessment data in Connecting Steps is recorded as a percentage of a level, the software can show if a pupil is just starting on a level (5% of P7 for example) or nearly completed a level (78% of P7). The progression within a level that Connecting Steps shows is not taken into account with the progression guidance. A pupil at the beginning of a level will have the same target as a pupil at the end of the level. For some pupils, mastering a single assessment point could meet their end of key stage target from the progression guidance.

Schools that want to use progression guidance with their assessment data from Connecting Steps should treat a target of a pupil reaching the next level as a pupil achieving a whole level from where they are, not simply getting to the next level. If a pupil is on 76% of P4 at the end of a key stage and the progression guidance suggests a P4 pupil should be on P5 by the end of the following key stage, the school should not just set a target of P5, but a target of 76% of P5 so that the pupil can achieve a whole levels progress in the key stage. Using the formulas in this document will do this for you.

B Squared’s GAP software allows schools to look at their data for groups of pupils and can provide group reports for looking at progression or setting targets based on their previous progression.

By running the targeting report for a year group giving the following dates

From - End of previous key stage*

To - Current date

Target – End of current key stage

*You will need data going back to the end of the previous key stage to do this effectively. You can however use data for only a few years, but the formulas below won’t work correctly for the UQ targets.

This will give a target based on their rate of progression through the key stage. You can then compare this target to their UQ target to see how likely they are to achieve the target and if you need to adjust the target.

You can run the targeting report for each year group using the dates listed in this table

You now have the data and can either manually compare the Target to the To data columns and look at the progression guidance or you can utilise the power of Excel to do this for you.

You first of all need to copy the data to the clipboard so you can paste it into Excel. When you copy data out of GAP you have 2 options, formatted data is easy to read but cannot be used numerically by Excel and source data which is converted to a numerical value that can be used by Excel, but is not as easy to read. As we need to work with the numbers, you will need to use the Source Data.

Open up Excel and select the A1 cell (top left) and then paste the data into the spread sheet. All the following information is based on the data being pasted starting at cell A1. You widen any columns as needed. You can reduce the number of digits after the decimal point in columns I, J and K to make reading easier. You can now see our numerical code, we have given each level a number using a rule of 1 level per number to give a consistent scale. The scale is below;

* For subjects with ABC sub levels, each sub level is a third of a level, this allows comparison with subjects without ABC sublevels and for comparison against levels which aren’t split into ABC sub levels. 33% of 1C is the same as 11% of Level 1.

So 69% of P5 becomes 4.69. 60% of 1C becomes 8.20.

UQ Target Formulas

We now need to add the UQ target to the spread sheet. As we have the end of the previous key stage results on the spread sheet, we can use formula to work this out. You need to paste the formula corresponding to the key stage below into cell L8 on the spread sheet.

Key Stage 2 target

=IF(I8<1.5,I8+1,IF(I8<3,I8+2,IF(I8<7,I8+3,IF(I8>=7,I8+2))))

Key Stage 3 target

=IF(I8<4,I8+1,I8+2)

Key Stage 4 target

=IF(I8<2,I8+0.5,I8+1)

After pasting the formula into cell L8 and pushing Enter, L8 will display the UQ target for that pupil. You can then highlight the cell and the cells beneath for all the pupils and copy down to give the UQ targets for all pupils. You can add a heading of ‘UQ Target’ to the L7 cell.

If you want to automatically compare the targets, we can copy and paste the formula below into cell M8.

=K8-L8

You can also copy down this column so that the targets for all pupils are compared. You also may find it easier to convert the number to a percentage value.

If the value in the M column is negative then at the current rate of progression they are not going to achieve the UQ target. If the vale is a positive value they at their current rate of progression they are going to be above the UQ target.

What target do I set?

We now have 2 different target values, where they are likely to be based on current progression and where they should be.

We also need to take into account teachers knowledge of their pupils, are the pupils going to continue at this rate of progress? Can they achieve more? Have they just made a major breakthrough? The targets should be aspirational, using the target set by B Squared may not be enough, you should add to this target to make it more challenging.

What does this mean?

The aim of the progression guidance is good progress. This will be different for every pupil and they know and understand this. The document says you should only use the UQ targets as these are aspirational, but these targets were only met by the top 25% of pupils. The median is what was achieved by 50% of the pupils and 75% of the pupils achieved the LQ target.

By reading the highlighted sections in the progression guidance document linked below you will have a greater understanding of the document and realise how flexible it is when it comes to the target setting.

Downloads

Highlighted Progression Guidance

Spread sheet showing data and simplified rules

Document explaining the spread sheet

PDF version of this article for downloading and printing

If you have any questions or comments on using B Squared with the progression guidance, contact Dale on 0845 4660 141.