Introduction

1.1 The Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels statistics were first published in 2015/16 following the introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland in 2010/11 and replaced statistics produced from the Scottish Survey of Numeracy and Literacy. This assessment considered the extent to which these statistics meet the standards of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value as set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

1.2 The Achievement of CfE Levels statistics provide information on national performance in Scotland in literacy and numeracy, based on all pupils in publicly funded Primary 1 (ages 5-6), Primary 4 (ages 8-9), Primary 7 (ages 11-12), and Secondary 3 (ages 14-15) classes, and for all pupils based in special schools and units. These statistics are the only source of information on attainment of pupils in primary schools in Scotland.

1.3 It is important to note that we have not assessed the Curriculum for Excellence itself. While the introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence was a significant change in education policy in Scotland, it is not our role to assess, or form judgements on, policy changes themselves. Our role is to assess the statistics that are produced and reported by the Scottish Government on this policy.

1.4 The data are provided to Scottish Government by Local Authorities (LAs) and grant-aided schools and are based on teachers’ professional judgements of children’s progress. These professional judgements are based on a wide range of evidence collected by teachers during the ongoing assessment of children and young people’s learning. This includes observing children and young people at work, assessing their work in class, standardised assessments and assessing children and young people’s knowledge and understanding by talking to them about their learning.

1.5 The Curriculum for Excellence, as a policy, placed greater reliance on the professional judgements of teachers. The decision to use this approach is a product of the Curriculum for Excellence policy and is not within the scope of this assessment. However, we have considered how the statistics based on the teacher judgements align with the Code of Practice for Statistics, including the extent of the quality assurance processes applied. This is explored in more detail in paragraph 1.11.

1.6 The statistics were published as official statistics in development (previously referred to as experimental official statistics) for the first three years and have been published as official statistics since 2018/19. Scottish Government made the decision to remove the ‘in development’ label and publish as official statistics based on user feedback, robust methods and sufficient coverage; more information can be found in this Evidence Paper.

1.7 The key users of the Achievement of CfE Levels statistics include Scottish Government, Education Scotland, LAs, HM Inspectors and Schools. The statistics are primarily used by Scottish Government to measure progress against initiatives on attainment such as the National Improvement Framework. The National Improvement Framework underpins the Scottish Attainment Challenge which focuses on achieving equity in educational outcomes with a particular focus on closing the poverty-related attainment gap. This challenge provides stretch aims for LAs and supports a range of initiatives and programmes across Scotland.

1.8 As part of the evidence for this assessment we conducted 14 interviews with a range of key users within Scottish Government and across the wider education space. We also conducted an online questionnaire to gather views on the statistics, which received five responses.