Attainment Scotland Fund evaluation: case study research 2025

Research method and sample

Research method

A total of 14 schools were included in the case study research, selected from respondents to the school-based staff survey (also known as ‘the School Survey’). Headteachers who completed the survey were asked whether they would be willing for their school to take part in the case studies and the sample was selected from the list of 115 schools whose headteacher had opted in. Case study sampling was designed to ensure a broad spread in terms of location, school type, size, urban/rural classification and SIMD^[3] profile.

Following selection, headteachers were contacted with further details about the case studies, and were asked to confirm their participation and who they would like to include in the research. Fieldwork involved visits by Progressive researchers to each school. Most were one-day visits, although one school scheduled the research over two days. Fieldwork was conducted between 20 May and 24 June 2025. A total of five researchers conducted fieldwork for this project.

The content of each case study was tailored to the school’s circumstances, to include input from headteachers, senior leaders, teaching and support staff, other relevant partner organisations/professionals, parents/carers, and pupils. This process was school-led – researchers did not specify who should be included in the sample at each school, but asked headteachers to select the most relevant respondents based on the approaches they had implemented to close the poverty-related attainment gap. In total, 128 respondents were included in the research across the 14 case study schools.

A combination of one-to-one interviews and small group discussions was conducted, depending on practical issues such as timetabling, and individual preferences. The vast majority of research was conducted in person; one interview was conducted online with a respondent from a partner organisation unavailable on the day of the school visit.

Topic guides were developed to ensure that the main objectives were covered in the discussions. These guides were designed to capture information on the same topic areas as the School Survey, but also ensured that researchers explored issues in more depth and probed on specific areas to obtain more detailed information. The approach was also designed to be flexible, and much of the questioning was tailored depending on the school’s approach and the types of initiative they had implemented using ASF funding. A copy of the main topic guide is included as an Appendix to this report.

Potential participants were provided with information sheets about the research before taking part. Opt-in parental consent was obtained for all children and young people involved in the research, and assurances were given about confidentiality to all respondents.

Documentation was also reviewed as part of the case study research, including information published on school websites such as Standards and Quality Reports, School Improvement Plans, and some schools provided other documents, e.g. PEF plans, attainment data, school newsletters etc. These reports and documents were reviewed by the researchers where available, although these were used as a source of contextual information before conducting the case study visits, rather than forming part of the analysis presented in this report.

Sample profile

Table 1 provides an overview of the schools included in the case study research. Schools from 13 local authorities across Scotland were represented in the case study sample.

Table 2 outlines the respondents included in the overall sample. A diverse range of roles/respondent types were included. While previous evaluation research has focused on feedback from headteachers and other school staff, this case study research succeeded in engaging with a wide range of groups including pupils, parents/carers and partner organisations, as well as school staff in a range of leadership, teaching and support roles.

Limitations

Qualitative research does not aim to provide statistically robust data, due to the sample sizes involved and the methods of respondent selection. This means that results cannot be applied to, or described as being representative of, the views of school staff across Scotland. The school-based staff survey also conducted as part of this evaluation was designed to provide robust data; this qualitative research aimed instead to provide more detailed insight into experiences and perceptions in relation to the implementation and impact of the ASF.

Some schools that had initially opted into the case study research were subsequently unable to take part (e.g. due to the time commitment required, upcoming inspections, and/or staffing issues) and therefore had to be replaced in the sample. The sample plan was intended to be fairly broad, and the final sample covered a good spread of school types and areas, providing feedback on a wide range of experiences from schools across Scotland.

It should be borne in mind that the sample was self-selecting, and this could have an impact on the research findings. For example, those who felt they were particularly successful in closing the poverty-related attainment gap may have been more motivated to volunteer for the case study research than those who felt they had made less progress. To help address this, the survey opt-in question highlighted that the aim was to include a wide range of schools, not just those who feel they are doing well, as the evaluation team was also interested in challenges and barriers to progress. Feedback from the visits suggests that a key motivation to take part was in fact the participants’ perception of how valuable the ASF funding is, regardless of the progress made – reflecting concerns about future funding covered in the later section of this report on sustainability.

It is also worth noting that a large proportion of headteachers who responded to the survey volunteered to take part in the case study research (115 of 487; just under a quarter of headteachers in the survey sample), which gave a wide pool of schools to sample from.