Getting the most from your data analysis, Sue Macgregor

Getting the most from your data analysis Sue Macgregor identifies the best use of data in the pre-exam weeks

In the previous edition of Conference & Common Room, we provided a strategic overview of Alps and the benefits of using our system to track student progress across Key Stage 5. In this article, I will provide more practical insight into how school leaders and subject staff might use their Alps analysis in the final weeks before the examinations. It is never too late to take a fresh look at data to identify where critical interventions may make the difference for some students between two different grades and, ultimately, to their University offers.

Alps is a leading analysis and performance improvement system for schools and colleges at KS5 and KS4. We provide analysis on A level examinations, generated from the full national dataset published by the DfE, through our endof-year reports or online in Connect Interactive. The latter allows all staff within the school or college to access and interact with progress data for their subject or teaching set online. Importantly, the most powerful application of Connect Interactive is in the analysis of in-year tracking or monitoring data, allowing teachers to see student progress against the national dataset in real time. Alps analysis is based on ensuring that all students are set aspirational and challenging targets, inspiring them to realise their full potential. At this time of year, teaching staff efforts turn towards the final preparations for the A level examinations. All content teaching should be complete, and the main focus will be on the revision of knowledge and understanding, and in ensuring that all students have mastered the skills necessary to access examination questions. This is particularly true of the young people who have the ability to attain the top grades. The classroom teacher must ensure that their students understand the demands of the A grade questions and how to structure their answers to attain high marks.

Of course, the strategies that make the difference will always come down to learning and teaching intervention in the classroom, but it is worth considering the part that some last-minute data analysis can play in ensuring that teachers are informed about which students or groups of students would benefit from the different strategies they might employ. The remainder of this article therefore focuses on practical data analysis and the impact this might have on teacher planning.

We should consider the type of data that might best support us at this point. Ideally, all students would have carried out a mock examination in their subject. If not, perhaps it is not too late to consider this. The paper should be carefully constructed to include the range of assessment objectives used in the final papers and should allow teachers and students to identify gaps in their knowledge or in their ability to interpret questions.

The results from these internal tests can now be used as the basis for an analysis point in Connect Interactive. If these were to be the grades that the students achieved on Results Day, would they have fulfilled their potential? Would they have gained the grades necessary to get into their first choice university course? If not, then there is time to intervene and support. Connect Interactive has a range of tools that allows teachers to identify and model how improvements to progress grades affect their own subject ratings and crucially affect the life chances of their students. In addition, it can highlight gaps in progress between key groups of students, allowing an insight into how teaching methodologies might impact on different young people. For example, the students who are your high prior attainers – have they gained the top grades in these internal examinations – if not why not? Is it down to gaps in their understanding, a lack of skill mastery or a lack of awareness of the difference in what an A grade answer looks like compared to that of a B grade?

Importantly, analysing in-year progress data in Connect Interactive allows school and college leaders to ask critical questions of teaching staff on progress trends. This can provide a guide as to how resources are distributed across the curriculum and whether there needs to be a change in strategy. The ability to ask searching questions through one-to-one meetings with all subject leads following a data input point is key in the prioritisation of resources. Skilled leaders will find creative solutions to ensure that this happens fairly and is of benefit to students and staff.

Such awareness of issues arising from an in-depth analysis of data means that school leaders can be more effective in the lead up to the examinations. They will better understand the types of activities that they should be seeing in classrooms are they walk around the school or college. Are they visiting Sixth Form lessons to check that revision is structured and focused on the issues identified? Are assemblies used effectively as opportunities to motivate and inspire students on how to get the most out of themselves? And are teaching staff similarly inspired and motivated to pull out all the stops to ensure that their students are the most informed that they can be about what they will face in their examination papers, and how to translate all their hard work into grades that do them credit? Sue Macgregor is Senior Educational Consultant at Alps For more information on Alps or to contact us, visit www.alps.education