Responses to a recent survey of school leaders showed that overall understanding of Progress 8 was high, but that there were some misconceptions about the detail, such as how science subjects and AS Levels were included.

The research, commissioned by the DfE, looked at school leaders' understanding of the Progress 8 measure – what they felt to be the positives and negatives of the measure, and the changes they had introduced to implement it.

During the research, some schools blamed the introduction of Progress 8 for causing a narrowing of the curriculum, with some school leaders reducing the range of creative subjects on offer to gain additional points for qualifications that count towards the core Progress 8 subjects.

There was also concern that Progress 8 did not adequately recognise vocational qualifications.

Progress 8 is a secondary school performance measure.  It measures pupils’ progress across eight subjects from age 11 to 16.