The Impact of the ‘Achievement for All’ National Evaluation Projects

Achievement for All (AfA) is a whole-school development programme aiming to improve academic and social outcomes of pupils. An efficacy trial led to it being rolled out across the country but under less favourable terms to schools. Eight years later, University of Manchester researchers conducted a second independent evaluation.

The University of Manchester evaluated the national pilot of Achievement for All with 450 schools. This suggested that under ideal conditions AFA was a promising school development programme when pupils in the trial schools were compared with pupils in comparison schools. The findings indicated that schools were able to reduce the number of children with special educational needs (SEND).

AfA led to a “significant impact upon progress in English and Maths among pupils with SEND” and “the AfA pilot proved to be very successful in narrowing the well-established achievement gap between pupils with and without SEND.”

It demonstrated improvements in behaviour, attendance and positive relationships and reduced bullying. The school leadership, ability of teachers to monitor and track progress and an increased focus on SEND all seemed to be crucial factors. Greater involvement of parents occurred as a result of structured conversations.

However, when researchers carried out a randomised controlled trial to assess how AfA faired as an intervention under normal conditions. AFA resulted in negative impacts on academic outcomes for pupils. Children in the treatment schools made 2 months’ less progress in Key Stage 2 reading and maths, compared to children in control schools, in which usual practice continued.

As a result of our evaluation, funding was immediately removed from a second project, saving the taxpayer approximately £855,000.

The Education Endowment Foundation, the funder of the follow-up research, noted that if schools wanted to continue with AfA it should be done cautiously—this potentially saved public money in the region of £1.8 million per year.

The Office for National Statistics used this research as a case example for large data sets, specifically stating that “whilst providing evidence of an identified area of interest in education research (evaluation research of KS2), this project also highlights the importance of independent evaluation research with education data. This project exemplifies that this type of research can help ensure that funding and grants are directed towards the most beneficial programmes with maximum impact”.

External source of information

• This study was used by ONS as a case study showing how large data sets can be used | Office for National Statistics