Highlights from research on the progression of Key Stage 4 and 5 cohorts impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic

The Research Division at Cambridge University Press & Assessment has an ongoing programme of research that tracks the Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 cohorts of students impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings from this work can help inform us regarding whether these students were negatively affected by the pandemic and whether they might require any further support while in education. In this article, we present a summary of findings from research conducted to date using data from the June 2020 student cohorts, drawn from the National Pupil Database, a longitudinal dataset maintained by the Department for Education in England. We examined various progression outcomes and compared them with those of a pre-pandemic cohort of students to assess whether, and in what ways, these outcomes have changed for students affected by the pandemic. Findings from the research has suggested that the students from the June 2020 cohorts were not disadvantaged in their transitions to post-16 study or to higher or further education. However, there was some evidence suggesting that different subgroups of students had progressed slightly differently. This implies that while overall the pandemic cohorts were not disadvantaged, the actual experience of different groups of students may have differed.