Professional attitudes to the use of pupil performance data in English secondary schools

Abstract

This paper presents findings from an exploratory, nationwide survey of maintained secondary schools in England on the perception, understanding and use of pupil performance data among teachers and school leaders, and the extent to which this is related to school performance. The survey was informed by an extensive review of research and policy literature, and was followed-up by a series of in-depth interviews. Both quantitative and qualitative analytical techniques were employed.

The use and availability of pupil performance data was found to be widespread, but least in use among classroom teachers, who reported relatively low levels of understanding. The research also reveals a hierarchy of data use in schools with many indicating that data is accessible only to management staff or is given to teachers pre-interpreted. In parallel, most staff make regular use of their own sources of pupil data, and there is widespread belief across the profession that ‘own data’ is at least as useful as official data, which poses a clear challenge for policy makers in raising levels of use and creating a ‘mixed economy’ of data sources. Despite the limitations of this exploratory study, it presents some potential lines of enquiry for larger scale research studies on data-use.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Anthony Kelly: orcid.org/0000-0003-4664-8585

ORCID for Christopher Downey: orcid.org/0000-0002-6094-0534

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