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Summary

This paper analyses results from over 6,000 primary schools across England who used the following tests created by RS Assessment:

• Progress in Understanding Mathematics Assessment (PUMA)
• Progress in Reading Assessment (PiRA) tests 
   

Key findings:

• Summer-born pupils show considerably lower average performance in maths and reading than classmates born at other times of the year. Although this gap narrows during the course of primary school, it persists until at least age 11.
• At the very start of primary school, girls show slightly higher average performance in maths, but by Years 2-3 boys overtake them and stay ahead until the end of primary school. Boys show somewhat higher variability in their maths attainment compared to girls.
• The gender differences in maths vary by topic, with boys doing particularly well in number and measures while girls do relatively well in operations and geometry.
• In reading girls are, on average, stronger than boys at the start of primary school, and maintain this advantage all the way to age 11. These gender differences apply roughly equally across different reading topics.
• There are also clear average differences between types of school. Those with higher proportions of disadvantaged pupils show lower average performance in both maths and reading during the early years of primary education, and this gap tends to grow over time. Similarly, schools with higher Ofsted ratings tend to do better than those with lower ratings.

Introduction

There is much discussion about the ways in which pupil and school characteristics can affect academic performance, but large-scale, high-quality data sets are often lacking, especially those providing termly results of pupils throughout every primary school year. A substantial proportion of primary schools in England are now using the PUMA and PiRA tests and entering test results in to MARK (My Assessment and Reporting Kit), a free online marksheet and reporting service for customers of the tests. This paper provides a high-level analysis of over one and a half million anonymous termly standardised test results from the MARK database.

For further information about the kinds of schools included and an explanation of the test scoring system, see the Appendix.

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