Northern Alliance Identifying Meaningful Measures To Address The Attainment Gap

24th January 2022

Northern Alliance Research Assistant Grant Murray explained: "We are very pleased to be working in partnership with the Data for Children Collaborative. It's a great example of how working together across council areas means we can look to address shared challenges.

"This work is allowing us to conduct in-depth analysis at a regional level, alongside local insight and challenges on the ground, drawing on potential new data sources and techniques."

Northern Alliance Lead Officer for Raising Attainment and Closing the Gap Jo Kirby said: "More relevant data in a local context will serve to improve the system so that those working in schools can better understand and facilitate equity and progression in the classroom for all our learners, regardless of the barriers they may face."

Alex Hutchison, Director of the Data for Children Collaborative added: "This project highlights the power of academia, private sector and public sector working together, and how each of those areas brings different strengths to look at a problem in a new way."

Laurence Findlay, Regional Improvement Lead for the Northern Alliance and Director of Education and Children's Services for Aberdeenshire Council thinks the analysis of data will help to inform approaches at a local level.

He said: "This important work will help practitioners to think about the trends identified within their local context. This isn't just about schools but all services that support children and families understanding how best they can work together to make a difference. Understanding the factors that present barriers to families and young people will help us to better support families to access the help they need to thrive."

The outcomes of the first phase of work are now available on the
project summary webpage

The Northern Alliance is currently reviewing proposals for the second phase of works, which will aim to take a deeper look at the data identified, and build meaningful measures for education practitioners to use.

View the report from Fraser of Allander on the project and their statistical analysis paper

A CivicDataLab report on the findings is also available

For more information about the work of the Northern Alliance, including new professional learning opportunities and links to professional networks, visit: https://northernalliance.scot/ Practitioners can also find and join our professional networks via our Northern Alliance SharePoint site (Glow login required).