Acquiring school attainment data to evaluate widening participation activity: issues and solutions

The Office for Students (OfS)i has prioritised attainment improvement in schools as a key objective in Higher Education Provider (HEP) outreach provision (Blake, 2022). Part of this challenge is to accurately gather attainment and/or proxy measures to evidence impact. This methods briefing will highlight the issues, challenges, and ways forward that the Centre for Student and Community Engagement (CenSCE) at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has experienced in developing greater sophistication in its (attainment) data gathering approach with partner schools.