APPENDIX 2: EXPLANATORY INFORMATION (SI
2008/364)
Education (School Performance Information) (England)
(Amendment) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/364)
1. The Committee put the following questions
to DCSF:
- why did the Department decide to ask schools
to report direct on the reasons offered by each pupil for absence
from Key Stage 3 National Curriculum tests, rather than asking
the local education authority to investigate and if need be report
on what they were going to do to improve the non-attendance rate?
- at paragraph 7.8 of the Explanatory Memorandum,
DCSF say that "in order to address Ministers' concern at
the high level of absence from key stage 3 tests, the Department
piloted an approach in the summer of 2007 whereby 121 schools
with absence rates of 10% or above of the cohort in the 2006 tests,
were invited to provide the reasons for absence from the 2007
tests." Did this pilot investigation not provide enough data
for the Department to analyse and use to adapt guidance? If this
is the purpose of the exercise, and the 2007 pilot did not go
far enough, why not repeat the pilot with a larger number of schools?
- how many schools will be asked to provide reasons
for pupil absences? Will this be a one-off exercise, or does DCSF
envisage that the same requirement will apply to schools in future
years as well?
- how much data does DCSF expect to receive? How
useful is it expected to be (i.e., will returns say more than
that pupil X was absent through sickness)? If the extent of data
to be received is very large, does DCSF have the capability to
process it all?
2. The advice received from DCSF was as follows:
"Our strategy includes working with Local Authorities
(LAs) to address above average levels of absence from national
tests in their schools, as part of their work to improve overall
attendance. The National Strategies Behaviour and Attendance Team
is providing advice and guidance to LAs on reducing absence from
tests, as part of the support on behaviour and attendance.
"However, we felt that we needed to understand
the factors underlying such absence in order better to support
schools and LAs in finding appropriate strategies for reducing
avoidable absence from national tests. We will be analysing the
outcomes from the data collected and adapting guidance to take
account of the findings. This will be disseminated to all schools
and LAs.
"Absence is the specific responsibility of schools
themselves, however, and the schools targeted have very high rates
of absence from national tests. It is important that they are
held accountable for this, and that we can be sure that pupils
are not missing tests unnecessarily.
"We are mindful that the National Audit Office
in their report entitled "Third Validation Compendium Report:
Volume 2" stated that: "in some cases the Department's
use of the [key stage test] data may lead to understatement of
performance. For example, around one per cent of primary pupils
and four per cent of secondary pupils are absent on the day of
the KS2 and KS3 tests respectively. These pupils are marked as
having not reached the expected level. Analysis of the teacher
assessments for these pupils at KS3 suggests that some would have
been likely to reach the expected level if they had sat the tests.
The effect results in a potential understatement of around one
percentage point in the three subjects measured by target 7."
"The pilot targeted 121 schools with test absence
of over 10% and produced a response from only 72 schools. This
helped National Strategies to begin putting together an effective
practice manual and devising appropriate guidance and support,
which they will update and tailor according to specific needs.
We do not think that another pilot would be appropriate as, in
order to devise appropriate and effective strategies, we need
information from all the schools that have high test absence levels
about their particular circumstances. The policy is designed to
underline the accountability of all schools under existing legislation
to ensure that eligible pupils, wherever possible, take national
tests.
"The collection will only be aimed at those
schools that show consistently high KS3 test absence levels. As
well as helping us to understand the reasons for the absences,
which will enable us to provide appropriate support, the collection
will also prompt schools to examine their current test absence
levels and to take action to reduce avoidable absence.
"The collection will take place annually for
schools with KS3 test absence levels of 5% and above over two
consecutive years. We will keep the policy under review and, if
effective, we will consider ending the collection.
"The following table provides information on
the likely number of schools that will be asked to provide the
reasons.
| Number of schools with 5% and above KS3 test absence over 2 consecutive years
|
| KS3 absence 5% and above
| Number of schools
|
| 2005/06 and 2006/07 |
550 |
| 2004/05 and 2005/06 |
617 |
| 2003/04 and 2004/05 |
712 |
"Schools will be asked to indicate the reason
for the test absence from a list of codes. The codes we will be
using will be consistent with the general absence codes and will
include descriptions and meanings. We will also be adding some
of the reasons schools told us about in the pilot. We expect to
receive data from all the target schools. Based on the information
provided in the table above, we do not expect the extent of the
data to be unmanageable. We have considered the volume of data
likely to be received and we are confident that we have the capability
to process it all."
Department for Children, Schools and Families
March 2008
| 
