Explaining Differences in Key Stage 2 Pupil Attainments: a multilevel analysis

This paper examines the effects of key characteristics on achievement at the end of Key Stage 2 with reference to the results of all KS2 pupils in one LEA in the north of England. It offers new evidence of the relative impact of various pupil characteristics on performance by using generalised regression methods, which take account of the structure of the data. The paper explores simultaneously the impact on achievement of school attended and school cluster (based on groups of feeder schools) and four pupil factors; namely, gender, age, social disadvantage (defined in terms of entitlement to free school meals) and having English as an additional language. It discusses the findings with respect to other recent studies in the field.