Education Scotland has published its third National Summary Report for 2022 - 2023, which provides key messages about the impact of the ongoing Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC).

The report is the final instalment to be published this year and is focused on the implementation of the SAC refresh, which aims to use education to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty.

It provides an overview of the progress of all 32 local authorities between April and June 2023.

The key theme for this reporting period was learning, teaching and assessment. Links to the first and second reports can be found on our website, which focused on several themes including data for improvement.

Interim Chief Executive of Education Scotland, Gillian Hamilton said: "The third National Summary Report, which is the final report to be released this year, highlights the range of work we have undertaken for the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) and summarises our performance from April to June.

"Attainment advisors worked in collaboration with education practitioners and their associated local authority to gather evidence of the progress made towards the SAC refresh and identified the next steps to focus on.

"The Scottish Attainment Challenge works to achieve equity in educational outcomes, with a particular focus on significantly reducing the poverty-related attainment gap.

"The Scottish Government’s ambition is for Scotland to be the best place to grow up and Education Scotland continues to commit to working with the profession to raise attainment and reduce educational inequity for Scotland’s children and young people.

“I hope those involved in delivering the Scottish Attainment Challenge find the National Summary Reports useful in carrying out their work.”

Patricia Watson, Strategic Director for Regional Improvement at Education Scotland said: "The third National Summary Report analyses and evaluates the impact of the Scottish Attainment Challenge, with a particular focus on learning, teaching and assessment.

“Evidence suggests that guidance on equity is being regularly revised and co-constructed with teachers. These suites of guidance support increased consistency of learning and teaching, providing clarity for schools on areas where improvement is required.

“Subsequently, this has had a positive impact on self-evaluation and school improvement planning.

“Clear links have also been made between increased professional learning and the improvement of data literacy skills among teachers. As a result, education practitioners are becoming more effective at targeting and evaluating the impact of support.

“For this reporting period there has also been a targeted focus on tracking and monitoring attendance. In many local authorities shared tracking systems have helped schools aggregate data more effectively, which in turn identifies next steps for individual learners, cohorts, and improvement priorities towards attendance.

“Following lessons learned this year, approaches to ensure rigorous and accurate tracking of progress towards the stretch aims continue to be a focus for many.”

This latest report shows that professional learning is a key feature in improving the delivery of learning, teaching and assessment, and partnerships continue to be a key strength for local authorities.

Some local authorities also acknowledge that further work is required to establish a shared vision and guidance on learning and teaching.

To further improve outcomes related to the Scottish Attainment Challenge, they should continue to develop strategies and policies for learning, teaching and assessment, quality assurance processes and participation of children and young people, among others.

National Summary Reports are part of the cycle for reporting on the implementation of the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC). The next batch of reports will be released next year.