value added scores?

[daysoftheweek]

Please can someone explain these to me? Am I right in thinking that your typical 'yummy mummy' would want a high achieving school with a value added score just over 100? Are they really of any value(!) since they all seem to be about 99/100.1 round here surely there can't be much between them?

Thanks

Ahhhh value added.
Here goes. Value added scores are all to to with a child's progression through the school from year 2 to year 6. The sats results are tracked. Everyone is expected to make 2 levels progress in KS2 and if they did that would give you 100 points in value added (which is what an average school should get). If the school gets a lot of level 2's in Y2 and gets them to level 5 in Y6 then the school will have a higher value added. It's about how much better than expected the children progress. A high achieving school with lots of level 5's will not necessarily have a high value added as they probably had a lot of level 3's in KS2 and so they have shown average progression.

It's not all it's cracked up to be. Schools with a high transient population loose out as the data is collected in Y2 and then children move away new children move in with differing abilities it messes it up.

It's just a piece of data that can be manipulated and is not altogeather reliable. It was brought in to show how schools who are not that high achieving in the sat's were still achieving relative to their cohorts. Schools are now learning how to play the system and are making it harder to get a level 3 in Y2.

Here endth my rant.

Thanks

and bump anyone any more views?

It's what kittyb says, so depends largely on the type of school. For example, say your school has a large number of children who start with English as a second language, then you'd expect a higher Value Added score, as you'd hope the school would help the kids improve as their language skills improve. If a school starts with mostly middle class high achievers, their value added score wouldn't be very high as the kids start school already quite 'bright', so they tend to do well throughout their time in the school.

to put even more simply-value added is just that adding 'value' (in learning terms) to a child. So a school has added more value to a child that begins school at alower level but then goes on to gain an average mark at year 6 or whenever than one who comes into school on an already higher level but still ends with the same result.

Thanks guys

no, your typical yummy mummy wouldn't give a toss about va, they would want a middle class school with no tiresome working class kids making the place look untidy.

That's what I thought morocco but periodically it is mentioned as something desirable when it seems to me that for half the people recommending it they would run a mile from a school with a high VA score (although the 'less desirable' schools round here also have low va scores in the main.)

Also there seems to be about a 0.1/0.2 difference between a lot of schools and I just wondered how useful that was and whether it ment anything at all or was just another useless gov statistic?
What use are we supposed to put it to? Does money follow va or leave it if good? Do schools with a poor score get teacher guidance? Why should people choose a school wiht a high va? (I use choose with reservations of course where I am your choice is dictated purely by your bank balance)

I wouldn't run a mile from a school with a high VA score as it shows the children do progress well but then I wouldn't run a mile if the VA was low. You have to correlate it with the School's sats scores eg VA 99.5 and sats in the 90% means they were bright children in the first place. It is capped for brighter children level 3 to a level 5 progression will always be seen as average.

VA is becoming increasingly important in assessing how well a school performs. It is no longer that important how many level 4's or 5's you have, rather the % of children who have made a 2 level progression in KS2.

Ofsted are beginning to look closer at it especially the contextual added value scores which takes into accout a pupils age, gender, SEN, EAL and a miriad of other statistics. They are beginning to say that a VA of around 100.5 is only satisfactory progress for attainment although it depends entirely which inspector you get and how well you argue your case.

I think the gov are pushing it as the way forward as a way of assessing a school as they begin to reform the y6 sats to maybe the single level tests which can be taken in Dec and May.

tO MEE THE VALUE ADDED IS VERY IMPORTANT MORE SO THAN ks2 RESULTS AS THIS SHOWS PROGRESSION