Study title

Literacy Attainment Data and Discourse is an ESRC Fellowship which will collect literacy attainment data from three contrasting historical periods and explore variations in their contemporary analysis. The three time-periods reflect different points in the emergence of the education system and its organisation: in the 1860-90s when attainment data were collected to facilitate state funding for elementary education; in the 1950s, when the 11-plus exam data were used to ensure transition into 'appropriate' forms of secondary schooling. And PISA data, analysed by the OECD, to help drive school system reform. To understand these data in context further documentary evidence will be sought on how and why the data have arisen in this form; the underlying hypotheses which shape their structure and analysis; and the broader policy debates in which the data are situated and to which their statistical analysis contributes.This historical and comparative analysis will be used to throw light on contemporary issues in literacy policy, with particular reference to gender and literacy attainment.These three datasets will also be used to explore the ebb and flux of different explanatory theories and predictions which underpin quantitative model building and help shape both data use and design.