Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 Destination Measures 1 KS4 and KS5 Learner Destinations Stakeholder Group 03 October 2011.

Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 Destination Measures

1

KS4 and KS5 Learner Destinations Stakeholder Group

03 October 2011

1. Rationale for Destination Measures

KS4 and KS5 Destination Measures are being developed to look at the success of providers in helping their pupils to progress on to positive post-16 destinations. The measures are intended to:

• Provide clear information to parents and young people about the post-16 routes taken by a school, college or training provider’s former pupils.

• Make schools and post-16 providers accountable for ensuring that all their pupils take qualifications that offer them the best opportunity to progress and receive the support needed to prepare for and complete that transition.

The measures are not intended to:

• Focus only on particular destinations of young people

•Suggest that some destinations are valued more highly than others

2. Why develop Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 destination measures?

•The choices and transitions people make at ages 16 to 18 are some of the most important of their lives – the choices and progress they make will have the greatest effect on their future employment and earning prospects.

•We know that young people who make good progress pre-16 and receive impartial, high quality careers advice and transition support are most likely to make a successful transition.

•But that our most disadvantaged young people make the least successful transitions into further learning or employment at ages 16 and 18.

3. Why two separate measures?

KS4 and KS5 Destination Measures are being developed in parallel.

Both focus on the importance of providers preparing their learners for the next stage of learning or employment and will provide information about their success to pupils and parents so they can make informed choices based on their performance.

Our aim is to ensure that these measures align and constitute a consistent view of what we wish to count as a positive destination:

• Data development and testing uses the same data sources and processes. This is being undertaken as a single exercise

• Responsibility for providing policy information, briefings to Ministers and meeting external colleagues about the measures is shared.

However, the two measures will be published separately (i.e. alongside the KS4 and KS5 Performance Tables respectively) and present different challenges.  

4.Current plans (subject to data testing and evaluation)

What we plan to publish:

Initially, we plan to publish data on the proportion of a school or provider’s students that went on to participate in education, training or employment the year after they left that institution.

• Key Stage 4 measure: based on activity at academic age 16 (i.e. the year after the young person left compulsory education).

• 16-18 measure (Key Stage 5 for schools): based on activity in the year after learning at age 16-18.

Data will be published at institution level.

Longer term: •We may be able to provide more detail, for example, which FE Institution or University they attended, pupil characteristics such as entitlement to free school meals, SEN, prior attainment etc. •This will be subject to further development and testing of the data, Data Protection rules and decisions on which breakdowns should be included.

5. Current plans (subject to data testing and evaluation)

Timing:The measures will be developed and introduced in two phases:

• Phase 1: all education destinations. This measure will be piloted and if robust enough, will be published alongside the KS4 and KS5 2011 Performance Tables (published in 2012).

• Phase 2: to include the more complex employment and work-based learning destinations (aim to publish in 2013). This is reliant on a clause in the Education Bill that will allow National Client Caseload Information System (NCCIS) data to be matched to the National Pupil Database.

Longer term: Development of the measures will not end in 2013. We intend this to be an on-going process in which we continually refine the ‘headline measures’ and look to provide more detailed data. There are a number of challenges to producing measures which are robust and which can be used for accountability purposes.

6. What data will be used for the Key Stage 4 measure?

7. What data will be used for the Key Stage 5 measure?

8. How can we produce these measures?

9. Planned timetable for development.

Phase One Phase Two Phase Three

Spring 2011 – Scoping and preparatory work

Summer 2011 – Data matching and development of simple test measure

Autumn 2011 – Methodology

Winter 2011/12 – Development of final measure

Spring 2012 – Testing of final measure; publication

During phase one – Seeking NCCIS data

Summer 2012 – NCCIS data matching and quality testing;

Autumn 2012 – Special school and wider destinations methodology; revisions to education-only measure

Winter 2012/13 – Development of final measures

Spring 2013 – Testing of final measures; publication

During phase two – Seeking additional data

Summer 2013 – Data matching and quality testing; review of requests for extensions

Autumn 2013 – Extensions methodology; revisions to phase two work

Winter 2012/13 – Development of final measures

Spring 2014 – Testing of final measures; publication

10. The Key Stage 4 Measure

What the measure might look like:

School A had 90 per cent of pupils who progressed to a positive destination within one year of ending Key Stage 4. Of these pupils:

50 per cent entered further education in School Sixth Form20 per cent entered further education in Further Education College 10 per cent  entered work-based learning or an Apprenticeship10 per cent entered employment

Other options we considered, but dismissed, for development of KS4 measures were:

• Attainment• Higher Education

11. The Key Stage 5 Measure

What the measures might look like:

College B had 70 per cent of students who progressed to a positive destination within one year of their 16-18 learning. Of these pupils:

40 per cent entered higher education at University (we may then break this down into top Universities)

20 per cent continued in further education.10 per cent entered employment

Subject to data testing, the KS5 destination measure will be published alongside the KS5 Performance Tables.

There are specific challenges facing the development of the KS5 measure.

12. Further development

As we develop the measures, further questions and issues have arisen. We will consider these issues as development progresses.

However these issues will not prevent or delay production of the measures we have committed to publish. They include:

•Providing pupil level data to schools and post-16 institutions.

•Young people who are NEET or whose destinations are not known.

•The point at which destinations are measured.

•Coverage of the measures.

13. Questions for the Stakeholder Group

In addition to your general views on development of destination measures, we would welcome your thoughts on the following:

For KS4:•Would it be helpful for 11-16 schools to know what level of study former pupils went on to?

For KS5: •If we do have to break destinations down into HE institutions how should we do this?•Should we use 'offers' through UCAS data or definite destinations through HESA data or both?

For both:•Should we use a snapshot of participation or sustained engagement for the measures?• How should we treat gap years and volunteering?•Would you/your members be interested in knowing longer term destinations as information only e.g. where the pupils are 3-5 years later, HE destinations for 11-16 schools.•How important is pupil level data (to be provided to the institution – not published)