Publication - FOI/EIR release

Analysis of urban/rural attainment: FOI release

Published: 11 May 2020
Directorate: Learning Directorate
Topic: Education, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202000024357
Date received: 31 March 2020
Date responded: 5 May 2020

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

Information requested

1. Any analysis held by the government regarding the educational performance of pupils from areas classed as 'Remote Small Towns' or 'Remote Rural' within the 6-fold Urban Rural Classification system.
2. Details of any specific interventions carried out by the Scottish Government (including Education Scotland) or local authorities regarding the educational performance of pupils from areas classed as 'Remote Small Towns' or 'Remote Rural' within the 6-fold Urban Rural Classification system.
The timeframe for this request is January 1st 2017 - present

Response

I enclose a copy of all of the information you requested for part 1 of your question in excel spreadsheets. This information was produced in July 2017 specifically in response to an internal request.
The first two attachments (A1895 – ACEL 1516 Urban-Rural by SIMD by FSM – Results and A1895– ACEL 1516 Urban-Rural by SIMD by FSM separately – Results (003)) contain analysis of Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Level (ACEL) statistics by urban-rural classification (further broken down by variables such as stage, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation quintile and whether pupils were registered for Free School Meals).

The analysis is based on the data that was initially published in December 2016. It does not take into account minor revisions that were subsequently made to this data in December 2017 and so is not fully consistent with the 2015/16 ACEL data available on the Scottish Government website.

It should be noted that this analysis is based on 2015/16 ACEL data. This was the first ACEL data collection and was labelled as “Experimental Statistics”. When providing the data we included the note that “caution needs to be made in relation to the consistency and comparability of teacher judgements across schools and local authorities (as such, caution should also be applied when looking at results across other domains (e.g. urban/rural, etc.).”

The third attachment (A1895 – Attainment (1+@SCQF5 or better) by Urban-Rural) contains analysis of school leaver attainment. The analysis shows the proportion of 2015/16 school leavers who attained 1 pass or more at SCQF Level 5 or better broken down by Urban/Rural classification and by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation quintile.

There are two further attachments (A1136 attainment by urban rural FSM and SIMD and A1159 destinations by urban rural FSM and SIMD) which detail attainment and destination statistics by urban rural classification by Free School Meal registration and SIMD in 2014/15.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested for part 2 of your request.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.