The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

Social Justice
a Scotland where everyone matters
Indicators of Progress 2003

Milestone 9: Bringing the poorest-performing 20% of pupils, in terms of Standard Grade Achievement, closer to the performance of all pupils.

The indicator measures the difference between the average tariff scores of the lowest attaining 20% of S4 pupils and the average tariff scores of all S4 pupils.

Information on the difference between the average tariff scores of the lowest attaining 20% of S4 pupils and the average tariff scores of the remaining 80% of S4 pupils is also provided for completeness. It should be noted that those pupils who did not attain any examination results at Standard Grade (or equivalent) in S4 are included, with zero tariff scores.

Average Tariff Score in S4

The average tariffs for the lowest attaining 20% of S4 pupils and all S4 pupils have increased between 1998/99 and 2001/02. However since 1998/99, there has been a marginally larger increase in average tariff score for all pupils and this has resulted in slight increase in the gap between the lowest attaining 20 percent of S4 pupils and the average tariff of all S4 pupils.

Chart 9a: Average tariff score in S4

Source: Scottish Executive

Gender analysis

Girls attain higher average tariff scores than boys. In 2001/02 average tariff score achieved by girls equated to some 5 Grade B's at Intermediate 2, while boys scores equated to 3 Grade B's and 2 Grade C's at Intermediate 2.

Table 9b: Average Points tariff in S4 by gender, 1995/96 - 2001/02

Urban Rural analysis

A snapshot of the differences between attainment by pupils attending schools located in urban and rural areas is presented below. Pupils attending rural schools have a higher average tariff score than their counterparts attending urban schools. The gap between the lowest attaining 20% of pupils at rural schools and all pupils at rural schools in S4 is slightly less than the gap between the lowest attaining 20% of pupils attending urban schools and all pupils attending urban schools in S4.

Table 9c: Comparison of attainment by pupils by urban and rural schools, 2001/02

The urban rural analysis included in the report last year classified small remote towns as rural and as such was not consistent with the Scottish Executive's core urban rural classification which defines settlements of 3,000 or less people to be rural. The urban rural classification presented above classifies schools located in accessible rural and remote rural areas as rural and is consistent with the core definition.

Background data

Table: 9d Average Points tariff in S4, 1994/95 - 2001/02

Tariffs: Unified scores scale

This milestone is based on the performance of pupils at Standard Grade in S4, in all Education Authority, Grant-aided and Self-governing schools. Each grade has been converted to the unified score scale which forms the basis of the new National Qualifications. This tariff score was devised by Quality, Standards and Audit Division in Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Schools and is essentially an extrapolation of the existing UCAS tariff score.

Note that optional standard grade writing papers for languages have been excluded from these results.

Availability of data and references

The source of the information is the Scottish Qualifications Authority, but the indicator has been produced by the Scottish Executive.

Information for this milestone is available at a Scottish level, by gender and by local authority. It is not currently available by disability or ethnicity. Analysis is available by urban and rural areas. This data includes attainment of Access and Intermediate level National Qualifications, which were introduced in 2000. The attainment score includes only qualifications gained in S4.

« Previous | Contents | Next »