Education Endowment Foundation:What works at Key Stage 4, two or three years of study?

What works at Key Stage 4, two or three years of study?

NFER
Implementation costThe cost estimates in the Toolkits are based on the average cost of delivering the intervention. 
Evidence strengthThis rating provides an overall estimate of the robustness of the evidence, to help support professional decision-making in schools.Not given for this trial
Impact (months)The impact measure shows the number of additional months of progress made, on average, by children and young people who received the intervention, compared to similar children and young people who did not.
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Project info

Independent Evaluator

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NFER

Comparing the impact of a two-year and a three-year Key Stage 4.

Pupils: 170675 Schools: 104 Grant: £142,629
Key Stage: 4 Duration: 2 year(s) 10 month(s) Type of Trial: School Choices Trial
Completed January 2023

The Project

This study was funded through the Education Endowment Foundation’s 2019 ​‘School Choices’ round. It aimed to investigate the extent of, and rationale for, offering a two- or three-year KS4 in England and explore how the choices made by schools about their length of Key Stage 4 (KS4) affected pupil outcomes at GCSE.

EEF summary

This study used a Quasi Experimental Design (QED) which aimed to compare the differences in pupil outcomes between two groups of schools – those offering a three-year KS4 compared to those offering a two-year KS4.

However, it was not possible to achieve a strong match through the QED, with the two groups of schools on different GCSE performance trajectories prior to the KS4 length policy change. For this reason, while this study reports some observed differences in the outcomes of interest, the research team is unable to make any claims as to whether these differences are due to the length of KS4. This caveat applies to the primary outcome (maths attainment), the secondary outcomes (English literature and 5 A*-C grades at GCSE), and to a subgroup analysis on the maths performance of everFSM pupils.

The evaluator’s recommendation is that schools should not make a decision about the length of their KS4 on the basis of the impact evaluation (QED) findings reported here.

Were the schools in the trial similar to my school?

  • A total of 405 schools took part in this study and responded to a survey exploring KS3 and KS4 length for their students. The impact analysis included 104 of these schools (170,675 pupils) that were eligible for the analysis.
  • There were important differences in almost all observable characteristics at baseline of schools running a two-year KS4 compared to those with a three-year KS4, including urban versus rural status, Ofsted rating (in the baseline year) and percentage of FSM-eligible pupils (in the baseline year).

Could I implement this in my school?

  • Both shorter- and longer-length KS4 schools were offering – and pupils were taking – fewer qualifications at the end of KS4; the number of qualifications declined from a peak in 2011/2012 to the time of the survey in 2019/20. Analysis of curriculum breadth (a secondary outcome measure), and the IPE findings, indicated that this shift was driven by policy changes relating to school-level performance measures, such as the EBacc, and changes to the way that vocational qualifications contribute to school tables. Curriculum breadth and depth was a key consideration for schools irrespective of their curriculum model.
  • Schools running a three-year KS4 were motivated to do so by their views of the requirements of the new GCSEs and, to a lesser extent, to improve pupil engagement in Year 9. In contrast, schools that had maintained a two-year KS4 described their primary motivation as the importance of a strong curriculum and breadth of experience at KS3 when delivered over three years. Regardless of the length of their KS4, schools emphasised the importance of tailoring the curriculum to their specific intake and context to best support their pupils. Schools often considered KS3 and KS4 holistically and reviewed the sequencing and delivery of the curriculum across the five years, rather than as two distinct key stages.

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