What’s the SEN national average? And what does above average in Key Stage 2 Sats mean? Does anybody know?

Janet Downs's picture
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The visits by Michal Gove to apparently non-existent primary schools where “more – many more” pupils have Special Educational Needs (SEN) than the national average and where all pupils achieve “well-above” the national average for English and Maths raise puzzling questions about education statistics.

First: what is the SEN national average for primary schools? Is it

1 Pupils with a Statement of SEN (1.4%)*?

2 Pupils with a Statement and those on School Action Plus according to DfE number crunchers (7.9%)*?

3 Pupils with a Statement and those on School Action Plus according to School Performance Tables (11%)?

4 Pupils with a Statement, those on School Action Plus and those on School Action (18.5%)*?

5 Anything else?

Second: Level 4 is the average attainment of pupils in Key Stage 2 Sats. So what does above average achievement mean?

1 Level 5?

2 Level 4a?

3 Above the average points score (28.2)?

4 Above the national average for pupils making expected progress (89% English, 87% Maths)?

5 Anything else?

Third: Gove spoke about pupils achieving “well-above” the national average. So what does “well-above” mean?

1 Level 6?

2 Level 5?

3 A point score of, say, 31 and above?

4 An expected progress measure of, say, 99% or more in both English and Maths?

5 Anything else?

So, when Gove says that a school has “many – many more” SEN pupils than the national average, is he comparing the school’s figure for pupils with Statements and those on School Action Plus with the national average for pupils with Statements only? If he’s comparing the school data with the national average for pupils with Statements/School Action Plus, which figure is he using: the lower figure from the DfE Statistics First Release (7.9%) or the figure given on his Department’s School Performance Tables (11%)?

And when he speaks of pupils achieving “well-above” the national average for English and Maths, what exactly does he mean?

Does he know? Do his advisors know? Does anybody know?

 

*See Table 6a here

 
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