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Progress 8 CI Lower

DfE Performance Tables

Last refreshed 30 January 2026 16:42
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Progress 8 CI Lower

DfE Performance Tables

Lower bound of 95% confidence interval for Progress 8 score

Understanding Progress 8 Confidence Interval (Lower Bound)

This is the lower bound of the 95% confidence interval for a school’s Progress 8 score. Confidence intervals help you understand how certain we can be about a school’s true performance level.

Technical Explanation

Progress 8 scores are estimates based on the students who happened to attend in a given year. The confidence interval shows the range within which the school’s “true” underlying performance likely falls.

  • If the lower bound is positive, we can be reasonably confident the school adds value
  • If the lower bound is negative but upper bound is positive, the result is not statistically significant
  • If both bounds are negative, the school is likely performing below average

Why This Matters

Small schools have wider confidence intervals because their results are based on fewer students. A small school with Progress 8 of +0.5 but a lower bound of -0.2 may not actually be adding more value than a larger school with +0.3 but a lower bound of +0.1.

For Technical Users

This is primarily useful for statistical analysis and comparing schools while accounting for uncertainty. For general comparison, focus on the main Progress 8 score.

Technical Details

Column Name
progress8_ci_low
Data Source
DfE Performance Tables

Coverage by School Phase

How many schools have data available for this field.

Primary
0% 0 / 17910
Secondary
93% 1176 / 1263
Secondary with Sixth Form
95% 1942 / 2033
Sixth Form Only
0% 0 / 289
All-through
59% 161 / 269
Special
18% 375 / 2059
Independent
0% 3 / 1724
Good (80%+)
Moderate (50-79%)
Poor (<50%)

This field does not contribute to the performance score calculation.

Distribution by School Phase

Statistical distribution of values across schools.

Min
-4.9
Max
2.29
Mean
-0.81
Median
-0.77
Std Dev
0.58
Schools
3654
Secondary (1176)
1
35
338
633
165
4
-5 -4 -3 -3 -2 -1 -1 0 1 2 2
Secondary with Sixth Form (1942)
3
4
8
32
336
991
527
38
3
-5 -4 -3 -3 -2 -1 -1 0 1 2 2
All-through (161)
1
1
3
40
71
41
4
-5 -4 -3 -3 -2 -1 -1 0 1 2 2
Special (375)
3
18
79
202
57
13
2
1
-5 -4 -3 -3 -2 -1 -1 0 1 2 2

Related Fields

Fields that correlate with Progress 8 CI Lower. Click to explore.

Positive correlation
Negative correlation