Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2017-18

Chapter 7: Achievement of CfE levels by local authority 

As this information is currently badged Experimental Statistics, comparisons between authorities should not be made without consideration of the context of the authority and the underlying approach to assessment.  

Full ACEL results by local authority can be found online at www.gov.scot/stats/bulletins/01322.  This chapter describes the range of data reported by local authorities, and comparisons to the national average.

Chart 7.1, illustrates the variation in results between local authorities and organisers for P1, P4 and P7.  The largest difference in results by local authority, by stage, can be seen at P4; with the literacy variable being the biggest (53 to 88 per cent) and listening and talking the smallest (69 to 94 per cent).  

The smallest range in results reported, by organiser is for listening and talking, with a difference of 16 percentage points at P1, 25 percentage points at P4 and 21 percentage points at P7.

Chart 7.1: Percentage of P1, P4 and P7 pupils achieving the expected CfE levels by organiser and local authority, 2017/18

At S3, (Chart 7.2) the variability between local authorities reporting attainment at Third Level or better was smaller than Fourth Level.  For Third Level or better, the smallest difference in results by local authority was 19 percentage points for listening and talking (81 to 99 per cent) and numeracy (80 to 99 per cent).  The highest difference was for literacy at 29 percentage points (69 to 99 per cent). 

For Fourth Level in S3, the difference in results reported by local authorities exceeded 45 percentage points across all organisers.  The smallest difference was for numeracy, ranging from 33 to 78 per cent (45 percentage points) and the largest was the literacy variable ranging 20 to 84 per cent (64 percentage points).

Chart 7.2: Percentage of S3 pupils achieving CfE levels by organiser and local authority, 2017/18

Results for local authorities by SIMD quintiles can also be found online in the supplementary tables at: www.gov.scot/stats/bulletins/01322