EDUCATIONAL-ATTAINMENT AND SOCIAL DISADVANTAGE - CONTEXTUALIZING SCHOOL LEAGUE TABLES

The Education Reform Act of 1988 has had major implications for educat ional provision in England and Wales and subsequent legislation in 199 3 has reinforced weak forms of parental choice which began with legisl ation in the 1980s. The legislative changes of the 1980s have given a prominent role for publishing non-adjusted tables of examination perfo rmance at school level both for accountability purposes and to aid par ental choices. The present paper draws on previous research and case s tudies for school catchments in South Wales to bring census data much closer to school level data, producing a much closer fit of performanc e results to social indicators at aggregate scales. The results at the se levels point to the need to bring together those agencies holding p upil-level data and agencies which hold school level data to allow mul ti-level approaches to contextualizing school performance results.