Guidance

16 to 18 minimum standards for 2017

Updated 25 May 2018

1. 16 to 18 minimum standards for 2017

The Department for Education (DfE) is applying 16 to 18 minimum standards to the performance of schools and colleges in the 2016 to 2017 academic year.

By creating 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 explains the changes to the school and college accountability system including how minimum standards are based on student progress from 2017.

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. This means there is no technical certificate minimum standard in 2017. This will however be reviewed for future years.

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 few exceptions:

1. Any provider with fewer than 11 students taking level 3 academic or applied general qualifications is 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, is excluded from the tech level minimum standard.

3. Closed, independent and special schools are also excluded from minimum standards.

3. Overview of the 2017 16 to 18 minimum standards

The main features of the 16 to 18 minimum standards for 2017 are that they:

1. Use a progress-based measure for level 3 academic and applied general qualifications – this is explained below under the heading “How the academic and applied general minimum standards work”.

2. Use a combined completion/attainment based measure for tech levels – this is explained below under the heading “How the tech level minimum standard works”.

3. Show 3 separate cohorts: level 3 academic, applied general and tech level qualifications.

4. We publish the following performance information in our performance tables each year:

   a. providers’ progress scores for academic and applied general cohorts in January

   b. providers’ completion and attainment scores for tech level cohorts in March

5. We do not publish lists of providers below the minimum standards.

4. How the academic and applied general minimum standards work

A provider will be considered to be underperforming against the academic and applied general minimum standards if:

1. Its academic or applied general value added score is below the threshold set by the Department; and

2. Its value added score is statistically significantly below the national average, i.e. both its upper and lower confidence intervals are below zero.

In the 2016 to 2017 academic year, the thresholds, for example value added scores set by the Department for academic and applied general qualifications, are minus 0.52 and minus 0.65 respectively.

For academic qualifications, we expect that over 90% of eligible providers will score between minus 0.54 and 0.30, and for applied general qualifications, over 90% of eligible providers are expected to score between minus 0.70 and 0.85.

5. How the tech level minimum standard works

A provider will be considered to be underperforming if against the tech level minimum standard if:

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

2. The percentage of its students that do not meet the minimum level of attainment threshold set by the Department.

In the 2016 to 2017 academic year, the completion and attainment score set by the Department for tech levels is minus 0.50. Additionally, no fewer than 70% 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.

5.1 Examples for academic and applied general minimum standards

School or College	Cohort	Lower confidence interval	Value added score	Upper confidence interval	Underperformance
A	Academic	–0.76	–0.53	–0.30	Yes
	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
	Applied general	–1.00	–0.76	–0.70	Yes

5.2 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	Underperformance
H	Tech Level	0.35	75	No
I	Tech Level	-0.50	70	No
J	Tech Level	-0.55	70	No
K	Tech Level	-0.45	65	No
L	Tech Level	-0.60	60	Yes

6. 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, college M has 11 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
M1	15	1	15
M2	15	1	15
M3	75	3	25
M4	75	3	25
M5	25	1	25
M6	50	2	25
M7	25	1	25
M8	105	3	35
M9	120	3	40
M10	135	3	45
M11	150	3	50

Nine students achieve an average point score per entry above or equal to the tech level point score of 25 and 2 achieve an average point score per entry below this. Therefore 82% of their students an average point score per entry in tech levels of at least 25 points, and so college M passes the additional threshold set by the Department in the 2017 tech level minimum standard.