The longer-term impact of Creative Partnerships on the attainment of young people: Results from 2005 and 2006

Author: Lesley Kendall, Jo Morrison, Tilaye Yeshanew and Caroline Sharp

Institution: The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER)

Full reference: Kendall, L., Morrison, J., Yeshanew, T., & Sharp, C., 2008. The longer-term impact of Creative Partnerships on the attainment of young people: Results from 2005 and 2006. NFER.

Summary of key findings

Alongside the NFER exploration of the impact of Creative Partnerships on behaviour (as measured through attendance and exclusion data) this study looks at attainment data from 2005 and 2006 similar to the study carried out in 2006 (Eames et al.).

The pattern of results in 2005 and 2006 was consistent with that reported in 2003 and 2004 (Eames et al., 2006).

Findings included: At Key Stage 3, for all four outcome measures considered (average Key Stage 3 scores in English, mathematics and science), the progress of young people known to have taken part in Creative Partnerships was statistically significantly greater than that of similar pupils nationally.

At Key Stage 4, for four of the outcome measures considered (total GCSE point score, best eight point score, English and science), the progress of young people known to have taken part in Creative Partnerships was statistically significantly greater than that of similar young people nationally. No difference was found for young people’s progress in mathematics.

The academic progress of young people attending Creative Partnerships activities was greater than that of other young people in the same schools, although the differences were relatively small, with effect sizes of less than 0.1 of a standard deviation. NFER concluded that because there was evidence of impact even though the measures used were not ideal or immediate, Creative Partnerships was making a small but valuable contribution to improving levels of attainment at Key Stage 4 and, to a lesser extent, at Key Stage 3.

Research Questions & Methodology

By combining attendance data with information from the NPD (the National Pupil Database), a national dataset of young people involved in Creative Partnerships was created. A statistical technique known as multilevel modelling was used to examine whether there was a difference in academic attainment between those young people involved in Creative Partnerships and those not, when all relevant background factors are taken into account. Young people attending schools which joined Creative Partnerships after Phase 1 were effectively excluded from the analysis.

The evaluation involved young people from a wide range of year groups (from Foundation Stage to Year 13). For the present study, three sets of comparisons were made:

• for young people in Year 6 in 2005 or 2006, comparing progress from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2 for those involved in Creative Partnerships and those not
• for young people in Year 9 in 2005 or 2006, looking at progress from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3
• for young people in Year 11 in 2005 or 2006, looking at progress from Key Stage 2 to GCSE.

Read the report.