Contextual value added (CVA) is a statistic that was used by the government of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

to assess the performance of schools. It was superseded by expected progress and then

Progress 8 Progress 8 (), was a Soviet uncrewed Progress cargo spacecraft which was launched in 1980 to resupply the Salyut 6 space station. Spacecraft Progress 8 was a Progress 7K-TG spacecraft. The eighth of forty three to be launched, it had the seria ...

The statistic is intended to show the progress children have made whilst attending a particular school. Unlike statistics such as exam performance, contextual value added attempts to take into account the circumstances of children attending the school that are beyond the school's control.

Description

The statistic works by comparing a child's performance with that of children with a similar prior performance and similar circumstances. There are three levels; Level 1 measures performance of

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

age children. It measures the performance of pupils between the end of

Key Stage 1 Key Stage 1 is the legal term for the two years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 1 and Year 2, when pupils are aged between 5 and 7. This Key Stage normally covers pupils during infant school, although i ...

and the end of

Key Stage 2 Key Stage 2 is the legal term for the four years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6, when the pupils are aged between 7 and 11 years. England and Wales Legal definition The t ...

. It is based on a

median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...

score of 100. Level 2 CVA measures performance of

secondary schools A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

(i.e. between the end of

and the end of

Key Stage 4 Key Stage 4 (KS4) is the legal term for the two years of school education which incorporate GCSEs, and other examinations, in maintained schools in England normally known as Year 10 and Year 11, when pupils are aged between 14 and 16 by August 31. ...

). Unlike Level 1 CVA, Level 2 CVA is based on a median score of 1000. Level 3 CVA measures performance of post 16 pupils from the end of

to the end of

Key Stage 5 Key Stage 5 is a label used to describe the two years of education for students aged 16–18, or at sixth form, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, aligning with previous Key Stages as labelled for the National Curriculum. Key Stage 5 is also ...

. Like Level 2 CVA, it is measured on a median score of 1000 CVA takes into account nine factors that are known to affect the performance of children, but outside of the schools control The factors are * Gender *

Special Educational Needs Special educational needs (SEN), also known as special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the United Kingdom refers to the education of children who require different education provision to the mainstream system. Definition The definiti ...

* Eligibility for

free school meal A school meal or school lunch (also known as hot lunch, a school dinner, or school breakfast) is a meal provided to students and sometimes teachers at a school, typically in the middle or beginning of the school day. Countries around the world ...

s. *

First language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

* Whether pupils move between schools *

Ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

* The age (i.e. the month they were born in) of different pupils within the year group * Whether a pupil has been taken into care (e.g.

Foster Care Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family mem ...

) at any stage * The level of

deprivation Deprivation or deprive may refer to: * Poverty, pronounced deprivation in well-being ** Objective deprivation or poverty threshold, the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country ** Relative deprivation, the lack of resources ...

in the area the pupil lives (using the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index) In 2009, there will additionally be bonuses provided for the inclusion of English and mathematics- these are based on a pilot which took place in 2008.

Criticisms

The statistic is not without questions as to its accuracy and its use. For example, care needs to be taken when making comparisons between small differences. In particular, CVA has a

margin of error The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in the results of a survey. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that a poll result would reflect the result of a census of the ent ...

, and the degree of uncertainty in the score increases as the size of the cohort decreases. For example, a different set of students at the same school will almost certainly produce differing CVA scores. The nature of Contextual Value Added being averaged across the country also means that it is not possible to directly compare an individual school's score across a number of years. Some schools have also claimed that contextual value added disadvantages schools with a record of high performance.

References

{{reflist Education in the United Kingdom Statistics of education