Guidance

16 to 18 minimum standards for 2018

Updated 14 March 2019

This guidance was withdrawn on 16 November 2023

This has been withdrawn as the information is out of date.

The use of minimum standards has now finished for all-age apprenticeships, up to 2018 to 2019, and Adult Education and Training, up to 2017 to 2018.

Read our introduction to qualification achievement rates for more information.

1. 16 to 18 minimum standards for 2018

This document describes how the Department for Education (DfE) is applying 16 to 18 minimum standards to the performance of schools and colleges in the 2017 to 2018 academic year. By establishing separate measures for performance in level 3 Academic, Applied General and Tech Level qualifications, we can compare like with like to give a clear picture of how institutions are performing in different areas of their level 3 provision.

2. New 16 to 18 minimum standards

The 16 to 19 accountability headline measures: technical guide sets out changes in the school and college accountability system describing how from 2017, 16 to 18 minimum standards will be based on progress where possible.

2.1 Coverage

The 16 to 18 minimum standards apply to all schools and colleges with 16 to 18 year-olds studying level 3 qualifications.

All state-funded mainstream providers of further education included in the 16 to 18 performance tables are in scope for these standards. That includes local authority maintained school sixth-forms, academy school sixth forms, 16 to 19 academies, university technology colleges, studio schools, sixth-form colleges and general further education colleges. However, there are a couple of exceptions:

1. Any provider with fewer than 11 students taking level 3 or Applied General qualifications will be excluded from the corresponding minimum standard.
2. Any provider with fewer than 11 students taking Tech Levels, or with fewer than 11 Tech Level study aims, will be excluded from the Tech Levels minimum standard.
3. Closed, independent and special schools will also be excluded from minimum standards.

3. Overview of the 2018 16 to 18 minimum standards

The main features of the 16 to 18 minimum standards for 2018 are that they:

1. Use a progress-based measure for level 3 academic and Applied General qualifications. Refer to How the academic and Applied General minimum standards will work section in this document for more information.

2. Use a combined completion/attainment based measure for level 3 tech levels. Refer to How the Tech Levels minimum standard will work section in this document for more information.

3. Show 3 separate cohorts: level 3 academic, Applied General and Tech Level qualifications.

4. We do not publish lists of providers below the minimum standards. However, providers’ progress scores are published in performance tables in January for Academic and Applied General cohorts and in March for Tech Level cohorts.

4. How the academic and Applied General minimum standards will work

A provider will be seen as underperforming if:

1. Its academic or Applied General value added score is below the threshold set by the Department;

and

1. Its value added score is statistically significantly below the national average, for example both its upper and lower confidence intervals are below zero.

In the 2017 to 2018 academic year, the thresholds, for example value added scores set by the Department for Academic and Applied General qualifications are –0.56 and –0.58 respectively.

For academic qualifications, we expect that over 90% of eligible providers will score between minus 0.58 and plus 0.29 and for Applied General qualifications, over 90% of eligible providers are expected to score between minus 0.59 and plus 0.56.

5. How the Tech Levels minimum standard will work

In 2016, a provider was considered as underperforming if its completion and attainment score was below the threshold set by the Department. This changed from 2017 with the introduction of a more robust Tech Level minimum standard. Underperforming providers now additionally fall below a raw attainment threshold set by the Department.

In 2018, a provider will be seen as underperforming if:

1. Its completion and attainment score is below the threshold set by the Department;

and

1. It does not meet the threshold set by the Department in terms of the percentage of students reaching a minimum level of attainment.

In the 2017 to 2018 academic year, the completion and attainment score set by the Department for Tech Levels is minus 0.55. Additionally, no fewer than 55% of students must achieve an average points score per entry of 25 points (equivalent to a merit grade).

We calculate the average point score per entry for every student (rather than aggregating the number of point scores for every student divided by the number of students) to ensure we compare all students in a like for like way. We then determine the proportion of students achieving an average of a merit grade.

6. Examples for academic and Applied General minimum standards only

School or college	Cohort	Lower confidence interval	Value added score	Upper confidence interval	Under-performance
A	Academic	-0.76	-0.58	-0.30	Yes
A	Applied General	-0.85	-0.80	-0.75	Yes
B	Academic	-2.13	-0.91	0.31	No
C	Applied General	-0.47	-0.38	-0.30	No
D	Academic	0.02	0.15	0.28	No
E	Academic	-0.04	0.11	0.26	No
E	Applied General	-1.00	-0.76	-0.70	Yes

7. Examples for Tech Level minimum standard

School or college	Cohort	Completion and attainment score	Percentage of students achieving average point score per entry of 25 points	Under-performance
F	Tech Level	0.35	50	No
G	Tech Level	-0.50	50	No
H	Tech Level	-0.55	55	No
I	Tech Level	-0.56	54	Yes
J	Tech Level	0.56	60	No

8. How we calculate the threshold in terms of the percentage of students reaching a minimum level of attainment for the Tech Level minimum standard

As an example, a college has 10 students studying Tech Levels. Each student’s total point scores, total size and average point score per entry on the Tech Levels they have entered are as follows:

Student	Total point scores	Total size	Average point score per entry
1	15	1	15
2	15	1	15
3	15	1	15
4	15	1	15
5	25	1	25
6	50	2	25
7	25	1	25
8	105	3	35
9	120	3	40
10	135	3	45

Six students achieve an average point score per entry above or equal to the Tech Level point score of 25 and four achieve an average point score per entry below this. Therefore 60% of their students have an average point score per entry in Tech Levels of at least 25 points, and so the college passes the additional threshold set by the Department in the 2018 Tech Level minimum standard.