DCSF has exploited the National Pupil Database to investigate the kinds of things that are related to pupils' attainment. The PLASC variables have allowed the department to disentangle the effects of, say, ethnicity, gender and SEN status. However, the range of data available for use in this way is rather narrow, and the same kind of information is generally available every year. With only NPD available, it was not possible to examine the effects of other factors about which information is not collected, or to assess the extent to which the effects of the NPD variables appear inflated due to the lack of this other information. Further, there is still a large unexplained variation at pupil level which it is presumed must be partly due to those variables we don't have information for.

Schools Analysis and Research Division has formed a new team which has among its responsibilities the task of investigating other data sources which can broaden the Department's understanding of what affects attainment. This team has done some work using other longitudinal data sources where factors such as parental education, material deprivation and family composition have been unpicked in terms of their influence on raw GCSE scores and also on progression from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4. It has also been possible to look at how important each of these factors is in terms of explaining gaps in attainment and progression between certain groups of pupils. For example, by combining the effects of different levels of aspirations with the prevalence of each level amongst both Free School Meal pupils and their counterparts, it is possible to attribute some of the FSM gap to aspirations. Doing the same for other factors allows comparison of the relative sizes of the contributions to the gaps.

Given that ALSPAC has also been matched into NPD, it offers two key things that the other data sources have not been able to provide, and which would enable similar work to be carried out and provide answers to similar questions. First, there is a wide range of other data collected, such as birth weights, handedness and child development scores. These would allow us to look at the relative importance of these factors in explaining gaps in attainment and progression alongside the other family and school factors available on NPD. Second, the young people involved in ALSPAC have had information collected about them from before birth, and should all have completed Key Stage Four. This gives a huge depth of information about the individuals as well as breadth. It would enable analysis of the factors that contribute to earlier attainment than has been looked at so far, Key Stage Two results, and allow greater likelihood of attributing causality, as it will allow factors from an earlier age to be taken into account.

Indeed, analysis could look separately at attainment at Key Stage Two, attainment at Key Stage Four and progression between the two, using data collected at ages appropriate for each part. Results from this work would be used to inform policy development inEngland, particularly on narrowing the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and others. Analysis would be carried out internally by government statisticians using the GSS code of practice. Results may be published as departmental research reports, possibly alongside similar analysis from other sample data sources.