Progress 8 is a range and not a fixed score. Every school has a range that is between 2 confidence intervals.

If any part of a school’s confidence interval overlaps another school’s confidence interval, overall performance and progress is likely to be the same.

The Department for Education explains Progress 8 as: “Progress 8 results are calculated for a school based on a specific cohort of pupils. A school may have been just as effective but have performed differently with a different set of pupils. Similarly some pupils may be more likely to achieve high or low grades independently of which school they attend. To account for this natural uncertainty 95% confidence intervals around Progress 8 scores are provided as a proxy for the range of scores within which each school’s underlying performance measure can be confidently said to lie. The results of schools with a small cohort tend to have wider confidence intervals; this reflects the fact that the performance of a small number of pupils taking their key stage 4 exams can have a disproportionate effect on the school’s overall results. Both the Progress 8 score and the confidence interval for a school should be taken into account when comparing with other schools, pupil groups or national averages.”

Please click on the link below to take you to the DfE Performance Tables website:

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/