This is one of a series of reports prepared under the provisions of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 . The Act allows an appropriate authority to request an assessment of official statistics against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics5 in order for them to gain National Statistics status.

The subject of the assessment is the school-level achievement and attainment results and progress measures (School-level examination statistics), that are produced by the Department for Education (DfE). The School-level examination statistics sit at the heart of the UK Government’s school accountability system in England and are used in a number of different ways by Ministers in discharging their duties to raise standards in schools.

Although developed originally before the Act and the Code of Practice were in place and for a different purpose, the involvement of statisticians has ensured that statistical thinking has been central to their evolution. DfE and the Authority have agreed that these may be considered official statistics on the grounds that they are used publicly in support of government decisions of public interest. To understand what further actions are needed to bring the School-level examination statistics element of the performance tables up to the standards required for designation as National Statistics, they also agreed that it would be beneficial to both DfE and the Authority to assess the School-level examination statistics against the Code of Practice.

The following School-level examination statistics have been assessed:

Achievement and attainment

National Curriculum Test results at end of primary (key stage 2)

GCSE and equivalent results at secondary (key stage 4)

A level and vocational results at 16-18 at school or college (key stage 5)

Progress Measures

From key stage 1 – key stage 2

From key stage 2 – key stage 4

From key stage 4 – key stage 5

School-level Examination Statistics for England: Letter of Confirmation as National Statistics (1)

School-level Examination Statistics for England: Letter of Confirmation as National Statistics (2)