Understanding schools' use of ‘value added’ data: the psychology and sociology of numbers

The aim of this paper is to explore the use by secondary school staff – chiefly at senior and middle management levels – of so-called ‘value-added’ data. Value added measures of performance are now relatively well developed methodologically: sophisticated statistical data is being generated by government agencies, LEAs, university departments and other agencies, including schools themselves. However, the continuing debate about value added has served to show how challenging the technical, conceptual and ethical issues are when putting such data to use. The issue of support for schools in interpreting and using such data for different purposes – school improvement and development or accountability – needs closer examination and understanding. The paper summarizes the evidence emerging from other studies on how value added data seems to have been used by schools and the questions this raises. It then discusses the findings and issues emerging from a recent NFER-funded project, whose particular focus was to explore the potential role of value added analyses in school and departmental improvement.