Post 16 data

There are a number of post-16 data systems available for school and local authority use:

The London Plus Value Added Project provides three of these systems:

Advanced Level Information System (ALIS)
Advanced Level Performance Systems (ALPS)
Learner Achievement Tracker (LAT)

The National Consortium for Examination Results (NCER) provides Educational Performance Analysis Software (EPAS) results data.

Fischer Family Trust (FFT) have produced the FFT Live website from National Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) data.

ALIS

ALIS provides value added (VA) performance indicators across all sectors of education including A level, AS level, applied A-levels, BTEC national and international baccalaureate examinations. It compares progress made by an institute's students and a large sample of similar students in the ALIS project. These comparisons have a common baseline of average GCSE score, and for students with no GCSE results, ALIS uses two alternative baselines, the Test of Developed Ability (TDA) and the adaptive test.

ALIS provides the LA with a school level summary graph ordered by VA or size of the institute’s cohort for the current year and with a three-year average. This data is available in the same format for subject level data. The LA is provided with an overtime VA chart showing the average standardised residuals across all subjects and institutes as well as by each subject. A consortium gender report and ethnicity report are also available at a subject level.

ALPS

ALPS provides a summary report on the quality of provision in Ealing schools as measured by the ALPS VA system, which only applies to level 3 work (A level/AVCEs) for students who have taken at least two A levels or equivalent. This applies to approximately two thirds (66%) of all students in full-time education in schools and colleges. The fixed benchmark for ALPS is the GCSE average point score; therefore pupils without any GCSEs are not included in ALPS.

ALPS provides the LA with overtime statistical figures for the number of students in post-16 education, the total number of exam entries, entry level percentages, average GCSE score students entered post-16 education with, and estimated average class size.

The overall institutional VA analysis provided overtime is the overall VA score, the overall VA grade (1 to 9), the t-score for a single year and the t-score single year grade.

The t-scores are also provided as an average over three years. A four year overtime analyses of the students banded ability by UCAS points per student, UCAS points per subject, and subjects taken per student are provided in terms of prior attainment, numbers, the indicator and ALPS grade.

A four year overtime subject VA table is provided showing the number of students taking a subject, the associate VA score, and the ALPS subject grade. Lastly ALPS provides a teaching quality indicator using the ALPS thermometers.

LAT

LAT is in its pilot phase and provides summary charts based on VA and distance travelled (DT), as well as national comparisons graphs, and national chances graphs. It measures the progress in qualifications based on GCSE prior attainment and covers the majority of qualifications taken, including vocational and ungraded qualifications. The LAT VA measures achievement in level 3 graded qualifications such as GCE A and AS levels, AVCE, and BTEC national diplomas; whereas DT measures achievement in the ‘other’ approved qualifications at levels 1, 2, and 3; such as NVQ, foundation and intermediate GNVQs and GCSEs.

EPAS

EPAS provides an extensive amount of attainment data reports by institute, subject, and individuals; this data is provided from 1998 to present. The data provided to EPAS is from NCER, therefore it captures all pupils at post-16 sitting any type of qualification. EPAS also matches individuals GCSE attainment to their A levels by a list or in terms of a VA line or progression graph/report. EPAS also shows where level 2 qualifications have been sat at post-16.

FFT Live

FFT Live provides subject level VA analysis for current and previous years. It shows by subject, actual LA data, compares it to data based on prior attainment at GCSE, and what the LA was expected to achieve. It also shows what similar schools achieved. The comparison is based on, by subject, the number of pupils in that cohort, the percentage who passed, the percentage with A to C grades, and the percentage of A grades.