Ofqual routinely analyses how attainment gaps for students with different protected characteristics and socio-economic status vary over time. Here, Dr Ian Stockford, interim Executive Director for Standards, Research and Analysis, offers analysis of results for different groups of students taking GCSEs, A levels and a subset of vocational and technical qualifications.
Today, Ofqual has published equalities analysis for the qualification results issued in summer 2023. Ofqual has conducted this analysis every year since 2020 to monitor how attainment gaps for students with different protected characteristics and socio-economic status vary over time.
As in previous years, this analysis focuses on GCSE, A level, and those vocational and technical qualifications that are taken alongside or instead of them in schools and colleges. The Department for Education (DfE) has recently published statistics on attainment of students at Key Stage 4 and for 16- to 18-year-olds. Ofqual’s analysis provides further insights on how attainment gaps have changed in recent years.
This analysis explores how the results for different groups of students have changed over time, when controlling for other variables, through a common statistical technique called multivariate regression modelling. This allows us to measure the impact of each student characteristic once all others have been held constant, rather than looking purely at more simple breakdowns of results by student characteristics. For example, we can compare the results of 2 different ethnic groups, without differences in their overall prior attainment or socio-demographic make-up affecting the findings.
