A key focus of the autumn term for many schools and colleges is self-evaluation and improvement planning. Results analysis is integral to this and an essential part of any improvement cycle.  When systematic and effective approaches are applied to results analysis, providers can identify strengths, pinpoint areas that need improvement, and develop targeted strategies to enhance educational outcomes. Within this blog I discuss some key elements of effective results analysis and the role Alps Connect can play in supporting schools and colleges with this.

Results analysis provides senior and middle leaders with key information that can be used to evaluate and enhance the quality of education, inform future decision-making and drive improvement across educational settings. When analysing examination outcomes, here are some key questions that you may want to consider:

1. How do examination results compare with predictions from in-year monitoring and results from previous years?
   
2. What priorities have emerged in terms of subjects and student groups from the analysis of your exam results?
   
3. Were outcomes consistent across different teaching sets?
   
4. Were there any results that came as a shock?
   
5. How accurate were predicted grades during the year and is any training required?
   
6. Is Performance Measures data in line with predictions? How does it compare to previous years?
   

Strategic Analysis – my starting point

Once examination data has been uploaded into Connect, my starting point was to analyse the data in the Strategic Analysis area. This gave me the opportunity to get an overview on the value-added progress made by my whole cohort and specific groups that I was interested in, within this. The Strategic Analysis area was where I used the comparison group function to compare the progress made by different student groups, this gave me a powerful insight into my students’ overall progress.

The Strategic Analysis Overview page provides you with a Quality Indicator (“QI”) score, which shows you how you have performed overall, compared to all schools in our national benchmarks. The QI score measures the total points amassed by your cohort or chosen student groups for each subject, against the total that would be generated if all Alps Minimum Expected Grades (MEGs) were achieved – measuring ‘actual’ against ‘expected’. This score is then ranked against other providers to generate an Alps grade, enabling schools and colleges to quickly see whether your outcomes match the top 25%, lower 25%, or middle 50% of providers in our benchmark datasets. Analysis of the Banded By Prior Attainment (BBPA) tables in Connect also allows you to see how students in each prior attainment band performed as a group – did each group perform as well as the other groups? Or are there clear patterns of disparity, for example, your higher prior attainment band was underperforming compared to the other bands?