The effective mathematics department: adding value and increasing participation?

Abstract

Given the commonly accepted view that having a mathematically well-educated populace is strategically important, there is considerable international interest in raising attainment, and increasing participation, in post-compulsory mathematics education. In this article, multilevel models are developed with the use of datasets from the UK Department for Education's National Pupil Database (NPD) in order to explore (1) school effects upon student progress in mathematics from age 11–16 in England and (2) student participation in advanced-level mathematics over the following 2 years. These analyses highlight between-school variation in the difference between mathematical and general academic progress. Furthermore, the between-school differences in post-compulsory mathematics participation are large. Importantly, there is no evidence to suggest that schools/departments with higher “contextual value added” from 11–16, a key measure in government accountability processes in England, are also more effective in recruiting and retaining students in post-16 advanced mathematics courses.

Keywords:

• mathematics
• attainment
• participation
• multilevel modelling

Acknowledgments

The Geographies of Mathematical Attainment and Participation project was made possible by generous funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (RES-061-25-0035).

Notes

1. Multiple imputation procedures are increasingly being used in multilevel modelling to account for missing data and produce increasingly reliable parameter estimates. In this case, REALCOM was used to conduct these imputation processes (see Goldstein, 2011).

2. All of the cells in this school/year matrix are over 70.

3. The IDACI measure is based upon lower level super output areas. It assumes a relatively homogeneous type of household. There will be some variability, however, so the IDACI score can only ever be an approximation.

4. The “mean GCSE” grade is calculated as the mean of all GCSE grades (A* = 8 … G = 1) with the exception of mathematics. Students typically have 8–10 GCSE “scores”.