Low attainment in mathematics: an investigation focusing on Year 9 students in England. Technical report

This project investigated low attainment in mathematics by focusing on the lowest attaining 40% of pupils in Year 9 in England and addressing the following research questions:

RQ1: What mathematics do low attaining secondary pupils understand, and what are their particular strengths and weaknesses in number, multiplicative reasoning and algebra?

RQ2: Can low attainment be characterised simply as cognitive delay? If not, to what extent and in what ways do low attaining pupils understand mathematics in qualitatively different ways to high attaining pupils?

RQ3: To what extent do low attaining pupils' prior understandings of mathematics, and of particular mathematical topics, help to explain the existence of the attainment gap? What is the relative contribution of these mathematical understandings in comparison to socio-economic status and other demographic factors?

RQ4: What is currently known about the effectiveness of teaching strategies and approaches that address low attainment in secondary mathematics?

RQ5: To what extent is mathematics currently taught in appropriate ways for low attainers?

This technical report provides additional, detailed information about the methods and analysis used in this research project. See the main project report for a discussion of the background to the project.