There has been some debate about the inherent unfairness of Progress 8 towards schools with higher proportions of disadvantaged and SEN pupils. Dr Lesley Duff looks at the evidence...

One of the biggest changes made to the accountability system in recent years was the introduction of Progress 8 in 2015/16 as the principle headline performance measure for all secondary schools in England (secondary schools were given the opportunity to opt into the new accountability measures in 2014/15, although only about 10 per cent did).

This marked an important shift by Department for Education (DfE) ministers away from using a threshold measure as the main way of judging secondary school performance to using a value-added measure.
This was an important development because, as readers of this article will know, prior attainment is a key factor in explaining how well children do at the end of school.

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