Summer 2020 Equalities Impact Analysis: GCSE, AS, and A level
An ad hoc official statistics release that presents data on attainment gaps by learner characteristics for GCSE, AS, and A level qualifications.
Key Points:
- This release presents official statistics on differences in qualification results by learner characteristics. When interpreting these differences, it is important to note that these differences may have been influenced by other confounding factors, such as subject selection and prior attainment for which it was not possible to take account of with the available data. It is also important to place attainment gaps in context by observing how attainment gaps vary by subject and from year-to-year. At a subject level, this variation can be quite substantial because of changes in the ability of learners choosing to study a subject, small entry sizes in many qualifications and other factors.
- In most subjects, gender attainment gaps have been in favour of girls in recent years. Compared to recent years, the gender attainment gaps for the 2020 (revised) grades tended to be wider (more in favour of females) for the top grades for GCSEs, AS and A levels and narrower (less in favour of females) for the middle grades for A level. However, these patterns were not consistent across all subjects.
- The free school meal eligibility attainment gaps for the 2020 (revised) grades tended to be wider (more in favour of learners not eligible for free school meals) for the top grades for GCSE and AS and narrower (less in favour of learners not eligible for free school meals) for the middle grades for A level, compared to previous years. However, these patterns were not consistent across all subjects.
- The special educational needs provision attainment gaps for the 2020 (revised) grades tended to be wider (more in favour of learners without special educational needs provision) for the top grades for GCSE and AS, compared to previous years. However, these patterns were not consistent across all subjects.
- Comparison of 2020 (revised) grades to 2019 by broad ethnic group shows increases in results for all broad ethnic groups for both the high and middle grades for all qualification types.
Contact
Statistician
Tel: 01633 373 253
Email: statistics@qualificationswales.org
Press
Tel: 01633 373 216