ALPS Value Added Data FOI Request

[MkII]

Can I ask if a school has to provide this information...

 

The data requested is a spreadsheet of all A level subjects for the previous 3 academic years or as many as they have, which contains 1. The Value Added Score and 2. The grade given to the subject.

 

The school has responded that "The ALPS data that you refer to does not give names of pupils but in some subjects the numbers are small enough that these can be deduced. As such pupils could be indirectly identified and it therefore comes under the Personal Data regulations of GDPR."

 

I suspect that this is tosh. What do you think?

 

Thanks

[djrscally]

It depends what they're calling small. The DofE will suppress results where there's less than 5 students for that very reason, so if they're calling a group of 5-10 kids small then sure I'd buy that.

[enjay]

Unless the class size was 1 student and the school had also put something on their website about "here's Johnny showing off his three-course meal for his A-Level Food course", I don't see how small class sizes allow you to deduce student names.

[MkII]

I got this from ICO chat just now:

 

"The GDPR legislation covers personal data. Personal data can be information that indirectly, as well as directly, identifies an individual so it would not necessarily have to name an individual for the information to be considered personal data."

 

They advised to write and ask the school to conduct an internal audit of their processes. If I'm still not satisfied I can then open a case with the ICO.

 

Class sizes locally can be as small as one student, but not for the mainstream subjects that we are interested in. That's a good point that I could mention so that they could exclude any data that would potentially reveal an identity.

[djrscally]

Unless the class size was 1 student and the school had also put something on their website about "here's Johnny showing off his three-course meal for his A-Level Food course", I don't see how small class sizes allow you to deduce student names.

 

It depends who you are though. You and I obviously couldn't but someone who knew the school a little like the parent of one of the kids in the class probably could.

[MkII]

It depends who you are though. You and I obviously couldn't but someone who knew the school a little like the parent of one of the kids in the class probably could.

 

Even then you're not getting any specific information just that their attainment was better or worse than their FFT prediction. It's pretty vague.

[djrscally]

Even then you're not getting any specific information just that their attainment was better or worse than their FFT prediction. It's pretty vague.

 

Sure but it's definitely enough to qualify as personal information and fall under the GDPR, albeit with a crazy low risk of it actually happening and impact if it does.

[MkII]

Sure but it's definitely enough to qualify as personal information and fall under the GDPR, albeit with a crazy low risk of it actually happening and impact if it does.

 

And as a rough guide, the minimum cut off is >5 records. Sounds reasonable.

[enjay]

And as a rough guide, the minimum cut off is >5 records. Sounds reasonable.

 

Since 5 is the limit the DfE set (according to the post above, anyway), that seems a good number to pick. Maybe amend your request to suggest schools suppress those class sizes, or perhaps aggregate them into a single "subject" called 'small classes'.

[MkII]

Alps were asked the question:

 

"I understand that you have received Freedom of Information Act request for some of your school’s Alps data.

 

Our response to this request is that we would strongly request that you refuse to provide the information requested, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), pursuant to the exemption under section 43 of the Act.

 

Section 43 provides that information is exempt from disclosure where such disclosure would prejudice or be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of a third party (in this case Alkemygold Limited / Alps).

 

The disclosure requested, would be prejudicial to our commercial interests, essentially because Alps reports are provided to our clients (you) on a confidential basis and any loss of confidentiality would significantly adversely impact our business. Clause 6 in our terms and conditions (which you agree to when you upload your data to us) includes the provision for confidentiality.

 

Alkemygold Limited (trading as Alps) is a private, limited company, that has been providing reports and training on the Alps analysis to schools and colleges since 2001. The purpose of Alps is to provide analysis and training to schools and colleges, to inform internal improvement strategies.

 

The Alps analysis within the reports have been developed by teachers for teachers. That is important part of our philosophy and aims and objectives (which you can see on our website http://www.alps.education ).

 

The Alps reports are not intended to be public documents, they are for the internal use of the schools and colleges and LAs and groups of schools that commission them, to identify areas of strength and weakness so that internal strategies for improvement can be developed, with the aim to improve outcomes for students. Making these reports available to the wider public or parents would potentially undermine the schools themselves, and in turn, the important and successful work that Alps does with staff in schools and colleges. If schools and colleges felt that their performance information was able to be publicly made available, many may stop buying the reports from Alps.

 

As you may be aware, the Alps analysis requires some background knowledge of the methodology, the particular circumstance of the school, the students' prior attainment and how this may change and the impact this can make, and the methodology of how our benchmarks are created and applied. We offer training to schools on how to interpret Alps data. Fundamentally, we emphasise to schools in our training, to recognise that that all the Alps indicators should be looked at as a whole when looking at performance. Looking at some Alps indicators in isolation, is not an appropriate use of the Alps data. Information can be taken out of context, which again would be counterproductive for the school in question. Allowing members of the public access to parts of the report would be risky, not necessarily benefitting them, nor the school, nor our reputation.

 

As you may know, the application of section 43 is subject to a public interest test whereby the prejudice to our commercial interests may be considered to be outweighed where there is a sufficiently strong public interest argument for disclosure. We would argue strongly that this outstanding public interest is not present nor applicable here; since general information on the performance of schools and colleges is available in the public domain and it would be reasonable for the applicant to obtain such information themselves by other means, for example Department for Education data or Ofsted reports.

 

We have been notified of a small number of similar requests made under the FOI Act, similar to the one you refer to below, and the exclusion referred to above was successfully applied to each, and no disclosure was made.

 

For these reasons, we do not believe there is a benefit to the public in accessing this information held by your school, that outweighs the significant prejudice to our commercial interest and the interest of the schools and students. We therefore believe that the exemption should be applied."

[Banjo]

Some of the info is already available in the public domain. https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/download-data They have asked for VA > which is usually the DfE's measure. Choose > Each Year of interest (x3) then > All England and then all three main KS5 measures for performance. Or you could just send them back >>

 

We can confirm that we hold the information you are seeking. However, the information is exempt from disclosure under Section 21 of the FOIA (because the information is accessible to you, as it is already in the public domain) and/or under section 22 of the FOIA (because the information is intended for publication at a future date).

[elsiegee40]

@GrumbleDook have you had any experience with a FoI for ALPS data?

[Banjo]

Have they asked for ALPS or VA though > An extract of what the DfE offers up in Excel, all 202,968 rows of them; Excuse the formatting.

 

URN LA Number Estab Number LA Name SCHOOL/COLLEGE NAME SUBJ SUBLEVNO SUBJECT NAME Qualification Type Subject Value Added Score

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 11010 111 Biology GCE A level 0.24

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 11110 111 Chemistry GCE A level -0.04

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 11210 111 Physics GCE A level -0.3

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 12210 111 Mathematics GCE A level 0.06

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 12330 111 Mathematics (Further) GCE A level 0.12

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 13690 111 Art & Design (Fine Art) GCE A level 0.62

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 13910 111 Geography GCE A level SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 14010 111 History GCE A level -0.21

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 14410 111 Economics GCE A level 0.13

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 14610 111 Religious Studies GCE A level 0.02

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 14830 111 Government & Politics GCE A level -0.35

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 15110 111 English Literature GCE A level -0.22

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 15210 111 Drama & Theatre Studies GCE A level SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 15650 111 French GCE A level 0.71

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 15670 111 German GCE A level SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 15750 111 Spanish GCE A level 0.44

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 16550 111 Classical Greek GCE A level SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 16610 111 Latin GCE A level 0.4

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 19080 111 D&T Product Design GCE A level 0.06

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 11010 121 Biology GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 11110 121 Chemistry GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) -0.11

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 11210 121 Physics GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 12210 121 Mathematics GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) -0.76

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 12330 121 Mathematics (Further) GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 13690 121 Art & Design (Fine Art) GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) 0.44

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 14010 121 History GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 14410 121 Economics GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 14610 121 Religious Studies GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 15110 121 English Literature GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) 0.07

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 15210 121 Drama & Theatre Studies GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 15650 121 French GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 15750 121 Spanish GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 16610 121 Latin GCE AS level (Not continued to A2) 0.6

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 20296 101 Study Skills Extended Project (Diploma) 0.48

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 15950 113 Chinese Pre-U Principal Subject SUPP

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 11010 699 Biology GCE AS level (All) -0.22

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 11110 699 Chemistry GCE AS level (All) -0.3

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 11210 699 Physics GCE AS level (All) -0.01

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 12210 699 Mathematics GCE AS level (All) -0.07

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 12330 699 Mathematics (Further) GCE AS level (All) 0.11

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 13690 699 Art & Design (Fine Art) GCE AS level (All) 0.17

100001 201 6005 City of London City of London School for Girls 13910 699 Geography GCE AS level (All) SUPP

[MkII]

The request was for VA

 

And we're in Wales [emoji3525]

Edited January 4, 2019 by MkII

[Banjo]

Ah! > Wales :-) Not sure what gets produced and when by the Ed Dept. I have seen KS5 VA by region and by national (Wales) - but not seen it published at school level. I wouldn't substitute ALPS data for VA though. Two very separate measures.