Welcome to our video guide for Key Stage 4 Accountability and Progress 8 for schools
in England.
This is video guide 1 of 5: an overview.
This video guide provides an overview of the Key Stage 4 Accountability reforms and explains
Progress 8.
Video guides 2-5 explain the New Points System and Calculating Progress 8 with examples.
If you need more help, we've provided contact details of curriculum and policy experts you
can talk to at the end of the video.
In October 2013 the Department for Education announced the outcome of their consultation
on Key Stage 4 accountability.
The main outcome was to move from reporting achievement from the percentage of students
gaining 5 GCSEs including English and maths at grades A*- C, to a measure based on the
progress made across Key stages 3 and 4.
The new measure 'Progress 8' means a change in reporting so that every grade for every
student is potentially in play.
In the past a student who was expected to get a number of grade Fs but who, through
the good work of the school, actually achieved a number of grade Ds made no impact on the
5A*- C measure.
Equally, a student who was expected to achieve several grade As but only achieved at grade
C had no negative impact on the school's 5A*- C measure.
Under Progress 8 the first student will contribute a significant positive score to a school's
measure, while the latter student will contribute a significant negative.
Alongside the Progress 8 measure, but not linked to floor standards, will be three other
headline measures: Attainment 8, the percentage of students achieving at least a grade C in
English language and maths, and the percentage achieving the EBacc.
Schools will have to publish this information in a standard format to allow easy comparison.
The Department of Education decided against having the separate achievement of English
and maths contribute to floor standards, instead the points available in Progress 8 and Achievement
8 are double weighted so that the importance of those two subjects is reflected in a single
measure.
These new measures will first be reported in January 2017 for the 2016 results.
This means that the next Y10 cohort, starting in September 2014, will be the first to have
their results reported in the form of Progress 8.
The Department of Education will be producing Progress 8 'shadow data' for each school's
2014 results, to show how their performance would look if they made no change to their
curriculum or qualification entry patterns.
Schools also have the option to opt in a year early if they feel they are ready; the Department
has said they will say more about this process 'in the summer term 2014'.
In terms of accountability measures, Progress 8 represents the closest alignment yet of
student success criteria and school success criteria.