Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence levels: 2021/22

Chapter 7: Achievement of CfE Levels by local authority

If making comparisons between local authorities we recommend keeping in mind the context of the authorities and their approach to assessment. See Section 9.1.4.4 for more information.

This chapter describes the range of data reported by local authorities, and comparisons to the national level results. Full achievement of CfE levels by local authority (2016/17 to 2021/22) can be found in the supplementary tables. The supplementary tables also include a breakdown of local authority achievement of CfE levels by deprivation.

Chart 12 illustrates the range in results between local authorities and organisers for P1, P4 and P7. The largest range in results across the four separate organisers (i.e. excluding literacy) can be seen in writing at P4 (ranging from 57 per cent to 86 per cent) – a difference of 29 percentage points.

The smallest range in results by local authority across the four separate organisers (i.e. excluding literacy) is for listening and talking. The range in performance (between highest and lowest) in listening and talking is 13 percentage points at P1, 14 percentage points at P4 and 16 percentage points at P7.

In both literacy and numeracy, the range of results between local authorities has decreased, at all three primary stages, between 2020/21 and 2021/22. This follows an increase in the range of results between 2018/19 and 2020/21.

In 2020/21, the range of primary schools results across local authorities increased as compared to previous years. This partly reflected variation in the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pupils across the country, as well as data quality concerns reported by some local authorities (for more information see Section 1.3 in Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2020-21). Conversely, this year, the ranges across local authorities have reduced back to pre-pandemic levels. This may partly reflect a gradual recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pupils' learning and their results, as well as on data quality.

At S3 (see Chart 13 below), the range in results between local authorities reporting attainment at Third Level or better was smaller than at Fourth Level. For Third Level or better, the smallest range in results by local authority across the four separate organisers was 16 percentage points for listening and talking (82 to 98 per cent). The highest range was for writing at 20 percentage points (77 to 97 per cent).

For Fourth Level in S3, the smallest range in results reported by local authorities was 37 percentage points for numeracy (46 to 84 per cent) and the largest was 48 percentage points for writing (35 to 83 per cent).

Results for local authorities by SIMD quintiles are available in the supplementary tables.