Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 Learner Destination Measures

Aims of the measures

Plans to use destination measures as headline indicators for performance tables were confirmed in The Importance of Teaching which stated “we will put greater emphasis on the progress of every child – setting out more prominently in performance tables how well pupils progress…We will introduce a measure of how young people do when they leave school”.

We have made it very clear that we want to put more information into the public domain so that parents and students can make informed choices about the performance of schools, colleges and training providers in their area. The development of destination measures will provide clear and comparable information on the success of schools and colleges in helping all their students take qualifications that offer them the best opportunity to progress and ensuring they receive the support needed to prepare for and complete the transition on to a positive destination. The main principles of the measures are that they will be simple, inclusive and fair.

What we plan to publish

There are plans to introduce two learner destination measures which will show the destinations of young people the year after they leave school or their post-16 provider. This means the measures are timely and relevant to the institution the young person has just left: • The Key Stage 4 measure will be based on activity at academic age 16 (i.e. the year after the young person left compulsory education). • The 16-18 measure (Key Stage 5 for schools) will be based on activity in the year after learning at age 16-18.

Timing

Initially, we plan to publish headline data on the proportion of a school or provider’s students that went on to participate in education, training or employment the year after they left that institution. The measures will be introduced in two phases: • In the first phase we will develop measures that capture all education destinations, this measure will be piloted and if robust enough, will be published alongside the KS4 and KS5 2011 Performance Tables (published in 2012). • For phase 2, we will work on including the more complex employment and work- based learning destinations and aim to publish in 2013.

In the longer term we may be able to provide more detail on the destinations of learners, for example, which FE Institution or University they attended, and break down these measures by pupil characteristics such as entitlement to free school meals, SEN, prior attainment etc. This will be subject to further development and testing of the data. We will need to take decisions on whether the data can be published (e.g. if it is robust enough, and if it meets Data Protection rules on publishing data on small numbers of young people) and if so, which breakdowns we should include in published data to ensure it remains clear and easy to understand.

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What the measures might look like

Our key priority will be to ensure the data is clear and easy to understand. The measures will break down into different positive destinations e.g.

School A had 90 per cent of pupils who progressed to a positive destination within one year of ending Key Stage 4. Of these pupils: • 50 per cent entered further education in School Sixth Form • 20 per cent entered further education in Further Education College • 10 per cent entered work-based learning or an Apprenticeship • 10 per cent entered employment

College B had 70 per cent of students who progressed to a positive destination within one year of their 16-18 learning. Of these pupils: • 40 per cent entered higher education at University (we may then break this down into Russell Group and/or Oxbridge) • 20 per cent continued in further education. • 10 per cent entered employment

We will consider options for presenting the data during the piloting phase.

Challenges to developing the measures

There are a number of challenges to producing these measures: • The data that we will use to produce educational destinations (Phase 1) is currently being tested to ensure it is robust enough for publication and use in accountability measures. • Producing non-educational destinations (Phase 2) is reliant on a clause in the Education Bill that will allow the National Client Caseload Information System (NCCIS) data to be matched to the National Pupil Database. The quality of these data and our ability to match them sufficiently well to be used as accountability measures will not be known until we begin working with the data.

Further development

As we develop the measures, further questions and issues have arisen. We will consider these issues as development progresses. However these issues will not prevent or delay production of the measures we have committed to publish. These issues include: • Providing pupil level data to schools and post-16 institutions. We are taking Ministers views as to whether we should share this data at pupil level and may need to legislate to enable us to share data on individual young people with their former institution. • Young people who are NEET or whose destinations are not known. We recognise that it is not possible to obtain reliable data on the destinations of all students. Only if we know for sure that a young person is NEET will we record them as such. • How we treat other activities. For example gap years and volunteering. • The point at which destinations are measured. Whether we use a snapshot of participation or sustained engagement. • Coverage of the measures. Initially, coverage will be restricted to maintained mainstream schools and colleges – but we are looking to include other providers, e.g. special schools and independent specialist colleges (ISPs) at a later date.

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