The Importance of Rigorous Data Analysis

Michlyn Caffrey Manoharan and Jessica Wood , the Heads of Subject for Secondary English and Science, respectively, for Ark Curriculum Plus discuss the importance of rigorous data analysis and suggest a structure for Subject Leaders to follow.

Data analysis is an increasingly important part of the middle leaders’ remit, but without support and training, subject leaders can find themselves staring at a page of numbers without a clear direction. There is also a risk that, without a clear plan, middle leaders simply search the data for patterns that fit their internal narrative. Students and teachers spend considerable time and energy completing assessments, so it is crucial that they are used for decision making, rather than simply being a hurdle to jump on. At Ark Curriculum Plus, our partner schools have access to Smartgrade , a data analysis tool that simplifies the process of data analysis.

As former heads of departments, we know how it feels to be presented with a spreadsheet of numbers and being asked to pull out the key themes. It can be overwhelming and stressful to have to decide what to look for in the data and then make decisions based on your findings. Here, we set out a structure to analyse the data and, more importantly, pick out the future actions that you will take to ensure that you make best use of the information provided.

Four steps to impactful data analysis

1. Overall picture

Analyse the mean (average) score for the paper and compare it to previous year’s data. If there is a difference (better or worse), consider whether this is due to improved understanding by the students, or is it an artefact of the process (e.g. was the paper easier this year?).

Your school is likely to have a group of students that are a key focus (e.g. SEND, EAL, HPA). How does this subgroup compare with the rest of the cohort? Is this similar to previous years or has the gap narrowed/widened?

Actions: If your data has shown a decline since previous years, highlight this to your SLT line manager and request support to improve. If there is a significant gap between the focus students and the rest of the cohort, speak with other members of MLT to find out if this is unique to your subject or something that is happening across the board.

2. Use the data to reveal gaps in understanding

If you are using Smartgrade to gather question-level data, you will be able to drill down to find more information about students strengths and ?areas for development. First, use the topic-level view to find the topics in which students did best and worst. It is important to remember that it is not just the percentage that matters here; if the questions on Topic A are easier than those on Topic B, it might not be gaps in understanding that has led to this.

Next, if you have used MCQs for your assessment, you will be able to use the distractor-level view on Smartgrade to identify misconceptions. Look for questions where many students did not choose the correct answer (we’d recommend about 5 questions per paper). You can hover your mouse over the question and this will show you what the question and distractors were. It is then up to your subject expertise to diagnose the problem.

In the example above, you can see that Question B4 is a question to look at because only 26% of students have got the answer correct. When you drill down into the question, you can see that all the distractor responses have a significant number of students choosing them. This suggests that students are just not clear on what a “multicellular organism” is; this will be a key definition the team would need to address.

Actions: Identify the main areas of concern for your students. For each one, decide on a concrete action step that will address the gap. Examples of these could be:

• Include a key definition in Do Nows over a few weeks to improve recall of the information.
• Do a Co-Planning session on a particular topic to ensure that teachers’ subject knowledge is secure and they understand the likely pitfalls.
• Review the medium-term plan for a topic so that next year, more time is spent building core knowledge before starting the topic.

3. What does the data reveal about the quality of teaching?

After identifying the main areas of concern, use your data to gauge if misconceptions are spread across the whole cohort or if this is isolated to a particular class.

Actions: If your data reveals that gaps in learning are isolated to a particular class, explore the reasons why this might be the case. Strategies to support teachers could be:

Lead a co-planning for your team to examine their classes’ data. Encourage teachers to complete a proforma that identifies how and when a high leverage gap will be addressed. See below an example of a reteach planner completed for English Secondary:

• Revisit your Medium-Term Plans. Are there key concepts that need to be taught differently next time you teach a specific unit, e.g. does more time need to be spent on topic sentences in week 1?
• Identify if there are teachers who may need one-to-one coaching to build their subject knowledge or develop their classroom practice. Use co-planning time to model and share great practice amongst the team to support with coaching.

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We understand the challenges subject leaders face when interpreting data and provide a structured approach to make this process more manageable and impactful. By following our three-step method—analysing the overall picture, identifying gaps in understanding, assessing the quality of teaching, and taking targeted actions—we can transform data into actionable insights. This approach not only supports informed decision-making but also ensures that the time and effort invested in assessments lead to meaningful improvements in teaching and learning. With tools like Smartgrade, the process becomes more streamlined, enabling teachers to focus on what truly matters: fostering student success.

Explore the types of assessment in our subject excellence programmes.