Introduction to the National Pupil Database

Description:

Course places are limited and registration by 27 April 2016 is strongly recommended.

Course number: ADRCE-training028 Dearden

Course Summary

This 2-day course gives a hands-on introduction to using the National Pupil Database (NPD) to analyse education policy. It provides an overview of all the key pupil background and attainment indicators that are contained in the NPD and an introduction to matching in key survey and administrative data to supplement the database. Participants are expected to bring a laptop pre-loaded with the statistical software of their choice so that they can practise carrying out data cleaning procedures.

Course Contents

Day 1 AM: Introduction to the NPD, the termly pupil census variables and improving demographic information via geocodes

Day 1 PM: Primary school attainment tests – FSP, KS1 and KS2

Day 2 AM: Overview of KS4, KS5 and datasets to analyse post-compulsory outcomes

Day 2 PM: Compiling school-level information and applying to use NPD

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants should:

• Gain a sound understanding of the key variables available in the NPD
• Understand how the data can be supplemented with other administrative and survey data
• Know how to prepare key variables for use in analysis
• Understanding the possibilities and limitations of using the NPD to conduct quantitative analysis of an intervention or policy

Computer Software and Computer workshops

Participants will need to bring their own laptop to complete the computer activities during the course. We expect participants to have a copy of Stata, R, SPSS or another statistical software pre-loaded onto their computer.

Presenters

Prof Lorraine Dearden is Professor of Economics and Social Statistics at the Institute of Education, University College London and Director of the NCRM Programme Evaluation and Policy Analysis (PEPA) Node at the IFS.  Lorraine has wide experience of using the National Pupil Database to evaluate government initiatives and policies and is an expert on non-experimental evaluation methods.

Dr Rebecca Allen is Director of Education Datalab, on leave from her academic post as Reader in Economics of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. Her research into school choice and school effectiveness makes extensive use of the National Pupil Database.

Dave Thomson is Chief Statistician at FFT with over fifteen years’ experience working with educational attainment data in local government, higher education and the commercial sector. He has extensive experience of working with schools and school improvement professionals in using data to raise attainment.

Dr Mike Treadaway is Director of Research at FFT and has over 20 years of experience in working with education data in the context of school improvement. Over the past 13 years at FFT, Mike has developed FFT’s models for analysing pupil progress, has led the processing, matching and data analysis for the National Pupil Database, and has provided advice and consultancy to DfE to support the development of new school accountability indicators and analysis of national trends in school performance.

Target Audience

This course is aimed at researchers in any sector (academic, government, non-governmental) who plan to use the National Pupil Database in their research or work.

Course Materials

Participants will receive written course notes.

Pre-requisites

You will need to use a statistical software of your choice for the computer exercises. Participants are likely to be using a mixture of Stata, R and SPSS. You need to gain some experience of using one of these packages before the course starts.

Duration

This is a 2-day course and it is likely to run between 10am and 4.00pm on each day., with registration at 9.30am on the first day.

Draft outline (subject to minor changes):

Day 1:

9:30am Registration

10:00am-11:00am Session 1 – Overview of the National Pupil Database and the pupil census

11:30am-12:30pm Session 2 – FSM and geocodes

1:30pm-4:00pm Sessions 3 and 4 – FSP, KS1 and KS2

Day 2:

10:00am-11:00am Session 1 – KS4

11:30am-12:30pm Session 2 – What happens after age 16? Using KS5, ILP, HESA and WPLS

1:30pm-2:30pm-Session 3 – Putting together school-level information

3:00pm-4:00pm Session 4 – Applying for the National Pupil Database

Computer activities over the two days will include:

• Basic data cleaning – turning fields into useful numeric variables
• Matching in other survey and administrative data
• Creating an overall attainment measure where some pupils sit multiple papers
• Dealing with pupil absence for tests using teacher assessment information
• Creating bespoke pupil attainment indicators
• Identifying stable school identifiers

Terms and conditions: 12 Cancellation and Refund of Events and Services

http://store.southampton.ac.uk/help/?HelpID=1

Cost:

The fee per day is:
1. £30 - For UK registered postgraduate students
2. £60 - For staff at UK academic institutions, Research Council UK funded researchers, UK public sector staff and staff at UK registered charity organisations
3. £220 - For all other participants
4. Free Place for ADRC/ADRN/ADS staff
All fees include course materials, refreshments and lunch; however, they do not include travel and accommodation costs.

Website and registration:

Region:

Greater London

Keywords:

Evaluation Research, Secondary Analysis, SPSS, Stata, Use of Administrative Sources, Quantitative Approaches (general)

Related publications and presentations from our eprints archive:

Evaluation Research
Secondary Analysis
SPSS
Stata

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