Scottish government consults on closing the gap

The government is seeking the views of practitioners and other professionals on its proposals for the measures and milestones it should put in place for closing the gap between children from disadvantaged communities and their better-off peers.

It says that measuring the attainment gap is a complex issue and there is a need to ensure that the measures and milestones towards closing the gap are appropriate and will provide a clear picture of progress across the education system.

Ministers say they are committed to making 'demonstrable progress' towards closing the gap during the lifetime of the current Parliament and to ‘substantially eliminate’ it in the next ten years.

The consultation proposes to use Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) data to identify the most and least disadvantaged children and young people, rather than Free School Meals registration data. They will look at the difference in attainment between those children and young people from SIMD quintiles 1 and 5. However, to recognise the importance of increasing attainment for all children it is proposing to set 'stretch aims' for all 5 SIMD quintiles.

Measures

The consultation proposes a basket of eight key eight key outcome measures from the early years, through primary to the end of secondary school, specifically on the achievement and attainment of children (and the associated ‘gap’).