What exactly is Attainment!

[bruffin]

Is it the progress they have made or the actual levels they have reached.

A good interview question!

Broadly speaking, attainment is standards and achievement is progress.
Attainment is summarised in test scores and examination grades.

So, if a child is expected to get 5 GCSEs and they get 7 they have got (attained) 7 GCSEs and made good progress (achievement).

It may be better explained when achievement goes the other way.

A certain school had good GCSE results.
The children were leaving at (say) 4 or 5 or 6 points above the national average.
The staff and parents were happy (especially the parents!).

On inspection, it was pointed out that the children were entering the school at 7, 8 and 9 points above the national average.
So, the achievement (progress) was negative/backwards (appalling).

The school was placed in ?Special Measures?, many of the staff were in shock, the parents were very puzzled and angry. There was much explaining and hard work to do.

I love the clarity of this answer .
But it is also a good example of how schools obsession with targets and appearing to do well in the league tables have left parents confused and ,to my mind ,education behind .

A question from myself about predicted grades for my DC resulted in a long conversation between the 2 teachers I was meeting about levels ,scores ,assesments ...I was left none the wiser .
You only have to look at all the queries raised on Mumsnet about education - surely it shouldn't be so opaque ,so difficult for us to understand ?
I think the poor teachers are so bogged down with assessing and targets that they're in danger of loosing time to teach .
And they're certainly loosing parents along the way .