Grade Analysis and AtL reports

Grade Analysis in Sisra Analytics shows the grades in a data set. It shows how each qualification, class, group or student is doing against expected grades, and how the grades are spread. It has three views: On Track, Grade Summary and Grade List. AtL counts your school’s Attitude to Learning (AtL) judgements.

Where to find them: select Grade Analysis or AtL under STANDARD REPORTS on the reports home, or on the REPORTS bar of any report. The Students shortcut and My Classes links also open Grade Analysis. See Open the KS5 reports.

Who can see them: authority groups with View EAP KS5 Reports, which Admin and User have by default.

Grade Analysis uses every grade in the data set. That includes grades that do not count in the headline figures, such as discounted grades and the grades of students outside the headline cohort. So its value added can differ from the Value Added report. Its expected grade columns fill only where your school’s Expected Attainment Pathways (EAPs) hold expected grades.

The worked examples use the demo school’s 26/27 cohort, this year’s year 13. Its Y12 Spring collection holds predicted grades from the spring term of year 12, and its Targets data set holds the students’ targets.

Options for every Grade Analysis view

Option	What it does	Default
The performance level, on the VIEWS bar	Level 3, Tech Cert or GCSE / Other	Level 3
GROUP REPORT DATA BY	Groups, Faculties, Qualifications, Classes or Students. Classes needs a qualification	Qualifications
DISPLAY GRADES AS	Actual grades, or equivalent grades	Actual Grades. At Groups, Faculties and Students in On Track and Grade Summary, L3 A*-E Grades
Count or Percent	Counts or percentages	Count
Standard or Cumulative	Single grades or grade ranges, in Grade Summary	Standard
Sub Grades or Whole Grades	Whether sub-grades count when grades are compared	Sub Grades
On Track tab, in ADD FILTER	Shows only grades above, on or below their expected grade	All
Residual Exclusions	Leaves qualifications out of residuals	Every qualification counts

The report opens on On Track at Qualifications, unless your administrator has chosen Grade Summary in KS5 Report Settings. KS5 report tools and options describes each option.

On Track

On Track compares each grade with the grade your school expects for this term, from its EAPs. The table is headed Level 3 Qualifications On Track summary, and at Classes the qualification’s name is added.

Read the report

Column	What it shows
Total Grades	The grades in the row
Average Pts Per Entry	Points ÷ entries. At GCSE / Other, Average Challenge Points takes its place
Average Grade	That average as a grade. A row that mixes kinds of grade, such as the Summary, shows ”-”
VA	The value added of the grades in the row
Residual	How the students did in this qualification compared with their other qualifications. Not shown at Groups or Students
A column for each AtL category, such as Average Judgement Attitude or Average Points Organisation	The category’s average, as your school set it up
Avg EAP Diff (Whole), Avg EAP Diff (Sub)	How far the grades are from their expected grades on average, in whole grades or in sub-grades
On/Above Track, Above Track, On Track, Below Track	The grades at or above, above, equal to and below their expected grade
Inc in Track	The grades with an expected grade, which the track columns count

A grade has no expected grade if its EAP is incomplete or the student has no EAP baseline. Blue, underlined counts are links to the students behind them.

Column	Colour	Meaning
VA, Residual	0.62 green, -0.11 pink, deeper the further from 0	Above or below 0
Avg EAP Diff	0.1 green and striped, 0.0 light green, -0.4 pink	Above, on or below the expected grade, on average
AtL averages	Letters in your school’s colours	The average judgement. In the demo school, A is blue, B green, C orange and D red

In the demo school’s predictions, art and design has 30 grades, averaging 34.33 points per entry, a C+. Of these, 12 are on or above their expected grade (10 above and 2 on), and 18 are below. That makes 30, so every grade has an expected grade. Avg EAP Diff (Whole) is −0.4, less than half a grade below on average, and Avg EAP Diff (Sub) is −1.1, about one sub-grade below.

Across all 560 level 3 grades, 228 are on or above track and 332 below. Value added is 0.29, and the summary residual is 0.00.

Track counts, value added and residuals for each qualification.

Residuals

A student’s residual in a qualification is their points per entry in it, minus their average across all their qualifications at that level. A row’s residual averages its students’ residuals, with larger qualifications counting for more. Level 3 grades and technical certificate grades have separate residuals.

Butterworth; Alisha has a B (40 points) in art and design, an A- (50) in computer science and a B+ (40) in English literature. Her average is 130 ÷ 3 = 43.33 points per entry. So her residual is 50 − 43.33 = 6.67 in computer science, and 40 − 43.33 = −3.33 in each of the others.

Residuals compare qualifications within your school, so across the cohort they balance out. A negative residual means students did less well in that qualification than in their others, not that it did worse than in other schools. See Read residuals and subject differences with care. To leave qualifications out of the averages, use Residual Exclusions.

By class

Group by Classes and choose a Level 3 Qualification to compare its classes. Each class’s name ends with the teacher’s initials, such as 13Ma1 (SBH).

Class, maths	Grades	Points per entry	VA	Residual	On or above track	Below track
13Ma1 (SBH)	24	27.50, a C-	0.37	−2.73	9	15
13Ma2 (KLE)	31	30.65, a C=	0.48	0.25	13	18
13Ma3 (CFE)	28	42.86, a B+	0.99	5.30	19	9

Class 13Ma1’s grades average about one and a half grades below 13Ma3’s, but its value added is still above 0. Value added allows for students’ KS4 results, while points per entry do not.

The classes of one qualification, with their teachers' initials.

With BREAKDOWN DATA BY set, the GAP rows at Classes are not the gap between the two groups. See Breakdown Data By and GAP.

With Compare

With COMPARE WITH set, each column gains a Compare column, and five columns are added at the end:

Column	What it counts
>= Compare	Grades better than or equal to the grade in the other data set
> Compare	Grades better than it
= Compare	Grades equal to it
< Compare	Grades worse than it
No Compare Grade	Grades with no grade in the other data set

Against Targets, 41 of the 83 maths grades are at or above target (31 above and 10 equal), and 42 are below. In the demo school these counts match the track columns in every row, because its expected grades match its targets.

Green means higher, even in Below Track.

The colours show which figure is higher, not which is better. Art and design’s 18 grades Below Track, against 0 for Targets, are light green with an up arrow.

Points to watch

Check Inc in Track against Total Grades. Grades without an expected grade are left out of the track columns, so the track counts can cover fewer grades than the report.

Sub Grades and Whole Grades change the track counts. With Sub Grades, a B- against an expected B= is below track. With Whole Grades, it is on track.

An EAP grade is your school’s expectation, not a forecast. A grade below it is a reason to look at a student’s work, not a judgement of the student or the teacher. What the evidence says about flight paths explains why.

If you come from the Value Added report, check the filter boxes. Its locked filter can come with you. Grade Analysis then counts only the grades that count in value added: 555 grades instead of 560 in the demo school.

Grade Summary

Grade Summary counts the grades at each grade in each row, with averages, value added and residuals.

Read the report

Column	What it shows
Total Grades	The grades in the row
A column for each grade, such as A*, A and B	The number of grades at that grade. With Percent, their share of Total Grades
Total Entries	The grades’ entries, in A level sizes
Average Pts Per Entry, Average Grade	As in On Track
VA, Residual	As in On Track

At Groups, a Student Count column is added.

With Actual Grades, each kind of grade has its own table. Examples are A Level, with A* to E, U, Q and X, and BTEC Single, with D*, D, M, P, U and X. AS Level and Extended Project have tables too. The screen does not say what Q means. With L3 A*-E Grades or L3 DMP Grades, every level 3 qualification is converted to one scale, in one table.

In the demo school’s predictions, English literature has 80 grades: 4 A*, 24 A, 15 B, 14 C, 11 D and 12 E. Maths has 83: 5, 20, 16, 16, 13 and 13 from A* to E.

With Actual Grades, each kind of grade has its own table.

With Cumulative and Percent, the grade columns become ranges from the top grade down, such as A* - C %. Art and design’s 1 A*, 3 As, 13 Bs and 6 Cs make 23 of its 30 grades A* to C: 76.7%. Across every level 3 grade, converted with L3 A*-E Grades, 48.4% are A* to B and 67.1% A* to C.

The other levels work in the same way. At Tech Cert, the demo school’s 10 IT L2 grades are all P, at 5.00 points per entry, an L2P=, with no value added. At GCSE / Other, English Resit GCSE has 14 grades: six 4s, three 3s, three 2s and two 1s. Its Average Challenge Points is (6 × 4 + 3 × 3 + 3 × 2 + 2 × 1) ÷ 14 = 41 ÷ 14 = 2.93.

Points to watch

Percentages are shares of grades, not of students.

X grades, and other grades worth no entries, do not count in the average points or the average grade.

Actual Grades is not offered at Groups, Faculties or Students, because grades of different kinds can share a table only as DfE equivalent grades.

Grade List

The Grade List shows each student’s grade in one qualification. It works at Students only. Group by Students, select Grade List on the VIEWS bar, then choose a Level 3 Qualification in the Filters panel, which opens by itself. Choose a Class: too, or leave it blank for the whole qualification.

The table is headed with the qualification and class, such as “Grade List for English Literature - Class 13Li1”. It has two tabs. My Classes links open it on Simple Grade List, and otherwise it opens on Detailed Grade List.

Read the report

Column	Tab	What it shows
Filter Tags	Both	Your school’s tags for filter values, such as Disad
Class (Staff Initials)	Both	The class the student was taught in, with the teacher’s initials
Grade	Both	The grade, coloured against the student’s expected grade
VA	Both	The grade’s value added: its points minus the expectation, divided by 10 and by the qualification’s size
A column for each AtL category, such as Attitude	Both	The student’s judgements, as coloured letters
EAP Grade	Both	The grade expected for this student, qualification and term, from their EAP
Grade Points	Detailed	The grade’s points
KS4 Prior (GCSE) or KS4 Prior (All)	Detailed	The KS4 prior attainment the value added uses: GCSEs only for A levels and other academic qualifications, all KS4 results for applied general and tech level qualifications
VA Expectation	Detailed	The points expected from students nationally with the same KS4 prior attainment
Residual	Detailed	The grade’s points per entry minus the student’s average
EAP Diff (Whole), EAP Diff (Sub)	Detailed	Whole grades and sub-grades above or below the EAP grade
EAP Baseline	Detailed	The student’s starting point on the EAP, such as a target grade
DfE Equivalent Grade	Both, with L3 A*-E Grades or L3 DMP Grades	The grade on the DfE’s A* to E, or distinction to pass, scale

Colour of Grade	Meaning
B+ green and striped	Above the EAP grade
B light green	On the EAP grade
D- pink	Below the EAP grade

With COMPARE WITH set, Grade is coloured against the other data set’s grade instead. It is light green with an up arrow when higher, and pink with a down arrow when lower. It has no colour when the two are the same.

In the demo school’s English literature class 13Li1, Butterworth; Alisha’s B+ is green and striped against an EAP grade of C=. Her value added is 0.36. Parkin; Elliot’s D- is pink against B=, with −0.16. The class’s 26 students average 0.19 value added.

Compared with Targets, Butterworth; Alisha’s B+ is worth 40 points against a target of C, worth 30. Her expectation is 36.412 points, so her value added is (40 − 36.412) ÷ 10 = 0.36. Her target would give (30 − 36.412) ÷ 10 = −0.64. Bamber; Dale’s B is pink against a target of A. His value added of 1.40 is pink too, because it is lower than his target’s 2.40, although it is well above 0.

With a comparison, colours compare each student with their target.

Points to watch

The grade colours follow Sub Grades or Whole Grades. With Sub Grades, a B- against a B= is pink.

VA here includes grades that do not count in the headline figures, such as a discounted grade. So a class’s value added can differ from the Value Added report at Classes.

Select a student’s name to open the student panel, and Next Student > to move through the list: see Student reports.

AtL

The AtL report counts the Attitude to Learning judgements in one category, such as Attitude, for each row. It appears only for data sets with AtL judgements. Your school sets up its categories and judgements: see Set up Attitude to Learning.

Options

Option	What it does	Default
The view	One for each of your school’s categories, such as Attitude, Behaviour and Organisation	The first category
GROUP REPORT DATA BY	Groups, Faculties, Qualifications, Classes or Students	Qualifications
Count or Percent	Counts or percentages of judgements	Count
Standard or Cumulative	Counts of single judgements, or running totals from the first judgement, such as Excellent - Good	Standard

Read the report

Column	What it shows
Total Judgements	All the judgements in the row, including unknown ones
A column for each judgement, such as Excellent, Good, Satisfactory and Poor	The number of each judgement. The columns take your school’s names
Unknown Judgement	Values that match no judgement in the category
No Judgement	Grades with no judgement in this category
The category’s figure, such as Average Judgement Attitude	The average judgement as a coloured letter, or the average or total points, as your school set up the category

In the demo school, Attitude has four judgements, Excellent to Poor, worth 4 to 1 points and shown as A to D. Art and design has 30 judgements: 4 Excellent, 9 Good and 17 Satisfactory. Their average is (4 × 4 + 9 × 3 + 17 × 2) ÷ 30 = 77 ÷ 30 = 2.57 points. That is nearest to Good, so it shows as a green B.

Computer science’s 22 judgements average (10 × 3 + 11 × 2 + 1 × 1) ÷ 22 = 53 ÷ 22 = 2.41. That is nearest to Satisfactory, so it shows as an orange C. Across all 560 judgements, the average is a B. Organisation is set up to show average points instead, such as 2.53.

Attitude judgements for each qualification.

Points to watch

A judgement appears only with a grade. If a student has a judgement but no grade in that qualification, the report leaves the judgement out.

Unknown judgements count in Total Judgements but not in the average. If the category’s figure column is missing, your school has set the category to Hidden.

AtL appears in the other reports too: as columns in On Track and the Grade List, and as the AtL tab in ADD FILTER. Many rows are small, so one student’s judgement can move an average a long way.

Related pages

• KS5 report tools and options
• Student reports
• Value Added report
• EAPs, flight paths and on track
• Set up Attitude to Learning