SISRA Analytics| KS3 Residuals
KS3 Residuals Guide
This guide aims to help with the understanding of how residuals are calculated within KS3.
Table of Contents
What are Residuals? ......................................................................................................................................... 2
Worked Examples .............................................................................................................................................. 3
Student A .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Student B................................................................................................................................................... 3
Accessing the Residuals Reports ..................................................................................................................... 4
Student Residuals ..................................................................................................................................... 4
Subject Residuals ..................................................................................................................................... 5
Class Residuals.......................................................................................................................................... 7
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SISRA Analytics | KS3 Residuals
What are Residuals?
Residuals are a way of measuring a student’s achievement in a subject relative to their average
attainment over all the subjects they have taken. This analysis allows a school to compare the
relative attainment of students in different subjects by removing the variation outside the school’s
control.
The method is based on two key pieces of information:
A student’s average attainment across all their subjects
How the student’s attainment in any one entry differs from their average attainment
The average attainment score per entry for a student is arrived at in two stages:
Subject Points
This is the amount of points awarded for the level achieved for each subject the students
have taken.
Average Point Score
This is the Total Points divided by the number of subjects to produce an average score per
entry (APS)
The difference between these two is called the Residual. So,
Residual = (Subject Points) - (Average Point Score)
When analysing residuals in the reports, remember that the difference between each level
for a subject is 6 points. Therefore, a residual of +6 means that the student is performing a
whole level better in the subject, compared to their achievement in all other subjects that
they are taking. Whereas a figure of -6 means that they are performing a whole level worse.
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SISRA Analytics | KS3 Residuals
Worked Examples
Student A
Subject
Level
Points
Residual Calculation
Residual
Art
5a
35
35 – 30.3
4.7
English
3b
21
21 – 30.3
-9.3
French
7a
47
47 – 30.3
16.7
Geography
4a
29
29 – 30.3
-1.3
History
3a
23
23 – 30.3
-7.3
ICT
7a
47
47 – 30.3
16.7
Maths
N
0
0 – 30.3
-30.3
PE
5b
33
33 – 30.3
2.7
RE
4a
29
29 – 30.3
-1.3
Science
6b
39
39 – 30.3
8.7
Student A has performed best in French and ICT overall. A residual of 16.7 for these subjects shows
that the student has performed on average around 2.8 levels better in French and ICT in
comparison to their performance in all the other subjects they have taken.
Student B
Subject
Level
Points
Residual Calculation
Residual
Art
6a
41
41 - 34
7
English
4a
29
29 – 34
-5
French
6a
41
41 – 34
7
Geography
5a
35
35 – 34
1
History
7a
47
47 – 34
13
ICT
3a
23
23 – 34
-11
Maths
4a
29
29 – 34
-5
Music
6b
39
39 – 34
5
PE
4a
29
29 – 34
-5
RE
3a
23
23 – 34
-11
Science
7a
47
47 – 34
13
Spanish
4c
25
25 - 34
-9
Student B has performed worse in ICT and RE overall. A residual of -11 for these subjects shows that
the student has performed on average around 1.8 levels worse in ICT and RE in comparison to their
performance in all the other subjects they have taken.
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SISRA Analytics | KS3 Residuals
Accessing the Residuals Reports
Student Residuals
You can find the residual for each subject that a particular student has taken within the Student
Detail Report. To access the student detail report you need to go to REPORTS (A1) > select key
stage (A2) > then click the admin year that you wish to view (A3) > click into the data set (A4) and
then select ‘Students’ from the view options (A5).
This will take you to Summary view of the Students report, where you can see the key summary
information for each student in the cohort. To view the detail report for a particular student, you
can click on their name (A6), which will be a blue underlined hyperlink.
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SISRA Analytics | KS3 Residuals
Once you are within the Student Detail report, you will be able to see the student’s average points
within the ‘Avg Pts’ box within the Summary section (A7). This is the APS which is used in the residual
calculations.
In the ‘Subjects’ section you can see the list of subjects the student selected has taken, as well their
Residual score for each subject (A8).
Subject Residuals
A school’s residual for a given subject is the average of all of the individual pupils’ residuals for that
type. This is calculated by adding together all the pupil residuals for the entry type and dividing by
the number of entries. This can also be calculated by finding the average of all the class residuals
within that subject.
You can find the residual for each subject within the Residual view of the Subjects report. So firstly
you will need to go to the Subjects report (B1).
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SISRA Analytics | KS3 Residuals
You can access the Residual view by clicking to expand the Table dropdown at the top of the
report and selecting ‘Residual’ (B2).
Then this will show you the Residual for each subject, as well as the student points, average points
and average level.
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SISRA Analytics | KS3 Residuals
Class Residuals
The class residual is the average of all the student residuals for that subject. So for example, the
class residual for class ‘9AAr1’ will be the average of all the History residuals for the students within
the ‘9AAr1’ class. You can view the class residual by going to the Subjects report.
Once you are within the Subjects report you can see the list of all subjects in the cohort. To drill
down to class level you simply click on the blue hyperlinked subject name (B3).
This will show you the residual for each class within the Residual column (B4).
The Art subject residual will be the average of all the Art class residuals, this figure can be found in
the Total row of the class view.
Thanks for reading.
If you have any questions, we recommend contacting your SISRA Administrator.
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