ICT in learning and teaching
Positive indications of improvements in attainment
At the time of writing the report, test score data was only available up to the second year of the project (2004). Some indications were found of improved attainment in national tests and examinations, which is particularly encouraging only one year after the new equipment had been fully installed in the ICT Test Bed schools. Both the 2005 and 2006 results will be included in analysis before publication of the final report.
Local education authority (Local Authority) analyses
Between 2002 and 2004 the ICT Test Bed local education authorities (Local Authorities) have narrowed the gap in their test score performance for some tests with those Local Authorities selected by the evaluators as benchmark comparators, that is, the rate of improvement in Test Bed Local Authorities was higher than that for the comparator Local Authorities. For the Key Stage 2 English test, for example, Test Bed Local Authorities improved by 4.68% between 2002 and 2004, while comparator Local Authorities improved by 4.09%. In keeping with this is the finding that the Test Bed Local Authorities were also found to have significantly improved on their own performance over the course of the project for Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 English. Especially encouraging was the finding that the number of students achieving A* to C grades at GCSE over the course of the project within Test Bed Local Authorities had also significantly increased, although the Test Bed Local Authorities were still trailing the comparator Local Authorities in this respect. Since the ICT Test Bed Local Authorities were chosen to participate in the project because of the serious socio-economic deprivation of their communities and low levels of student achievement, this is a very encouraging effect. It is particularly important in the light of the forthcoming report from researchers at University College and King's College, University of London (Taylor 28/2/06), which shows that the overwhelming determinant of students' attainment is not the school but their social background. An additional factor to note is that the comparator schools will also have increased their ICT equipment over the same period as part of the general increase in ICT across all schools in England.
Primary schools
Attainment within the Test Bed Local Authorities) has significantly improved over the course of the project for the Key Stage 2 English tests. The decrease in scores seen in Key Stage 2 science was replicated by the comparator Local Authorities and whereas the decrease in scores for the Test Bed Local Authorities was not found to be significant, the decline in the comparator Local Authority scores for this test was found to be significant, that is, the comparator schools had fallen back further from their 2003 levels than the ICT Test Bed schools.
| Year | % achieving level 4 in English (S.D) | % achieving level 4 in maths (S.D) | % achieving level 4 in science (S.D) | Average point score (S.D) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 70.61 (15.57) | 72.18 (16.37) | 85.29 (14.03) | 27.02 (1.89) |
| 2003 | 72.30 (15.59) | 72.00 (15.83) | 85.56 (12.62) | 27.08 (1.87) |
| 2004 | 75.29 (15.51) | 72.37 (16.18) | 84.99 (12.86) | 27.21 (1.91) |
Secondary schools
Attainment within the Test Bed Local Authorities) has significantly improved over the course of the project for the Key Stage 3 English tests, Key Stage 3 maths tests and the number of students achieving GCSE A* to C grades. A significant change was also detected for the Key Stage 3 science test, although performance on this test within the Test Bed Local Authorities was found to have decreased rather than increased between 2003 and 2004. This was also true for the comparator Local Authorities whose Key Stage 3 science achievements had also decreased. This may reflect a general issue with the tests rather than any differential outcome for the target and comparator schools.
| Year | % achieving level 5 in English (S.D) | % achieving level 5 in science (S.D) | % achieving level 5 in maths (S.D) | Mean point score KS3 (S.D) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 62.02 (14.58) | 61.83 (14.6) | 63.97 (14.09) | 32.94 (2.02) |
| 2004 | 65.95 (15.83) | 59.40 (14.13) | 66.35 (13.44) | 32.96 (2.11) |
| Year | 5 or more A*-C GCSE (S.D) | 5 or more A*-G GCSE (S.D) |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 41.28 (14.99) | 87.71 (6.86) |
| 2003 | 44.32 (16.57) | 87.42 (7.07) |
| 2004 | 46.35 (16.20) | 87.89 (6.46) |
School analyses
Secondary schools
Performance on the Key Stage 3 maths test in 2004 was found to have improved significantly for the ICt Test Bed schools by comparison with their performance between 2002 and 2003. No other tests score variations for ICT Test Bed schools between 2003 and 2004 were statistically significant.