Measuring Success

With assistance from our partner organisations, we work hard at LEAPS to measure the success of young people whom we support.

Working with our colleagues at Careers Scotland we are able identify the post-school destinations of the students we interview and work with during S6. In 2008 this will involve tracing the whereabouts of around 1400 S6 students who are currently participating in the LEAPS programme. These results consistently show that large numbers of LEAPS students progress directly from school to higher education, with others entering college. These ‘destination figures’ are presented yearly in the LEAPS Annual Report.

It is reassuring to see large numbers of LEAPS-eligible young people accessing higher education at local universities and institutions further afield. Nevertheless, as well as encouraging students to aim for higher education, LEAPS aims to help prepare them for university-level study, in order that they go on to enjoy successful academic careers. With this in mind, LEAPS commenced a tracking project in 2001 to measure the progression of former LEAPS students through their undergraduate studies.

In total the study tracked 1455 students through their undergraduate careers at partner universities and University of Stirling. The research set out to identify whether LEAPS students performed at least as well as more traditional students. The project was completed after 4 years and years concluded that:

‘The evidence suggests that LEAPS students perform at least as well as more traditional students. 87% of LEAPS students successfully complete first year and, as expected, the greatest attrition is at the end of first year. The levels of success for LEAPS students are higher than the corresponding Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) figures for young students from low participation neighbourhoods (for Scotland) which ranged from 81% to 84% for the academic years in the study. LEAPS students fare better and LEAPS must take the credit. The extensive programme of events available, particularly to group 1 schools and the LEAPS summer school, equip the students for university both in making the right course choices and in the confidence to succeed.’

Click here to view the full report of Tracking LEAPS students through their years in Higher Education report by Paula McClements.

Naturally, we do not claim to be responsible for the academic success of LEAPS students although we do believe it vindicates our efforts to encourage and support talented young people. We are currently collecting information about the post-higher education destinations of former LEAPS students – some early case studies can be found in our Annual Report.

A further approach we take to measure the impact of our work is by studying the progression from school to higher education of young people from each of our 46 partner schools. We study the ‘progression rate’ of each school over a 5-year period to identify patterns and trends. Although the numbers of pupils going straight from school to higher education will be influenced by a range of factors (not least the input of our colleagues in schools) in nearly all cases where LEAPS has been closely involved with a school, the proportion of pupils progressing directly to university-level study has increased.

Further research that had been undertaken includes a study of parental support for children making the transition to higher education and their attitudes towards career guidance and related
guidance services in 17 state secondary schools in Edinburgh and Lothian.
View the research here.

Conferences

From time to time LEAPS will be represented at conferences which tackle issues relating to Widening Participation.

In April 2008 LEAPS was invited to attend the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation conference entitled ‘Neither a moment nor a mind to waste’ as a model of best practice.

The Conference Manual can be viewed here. Click here to view the abstracts for the discussion papers or below for the international working group papers:
• Career Development
• Marshalling Resources for Change
• Partnering with Post-Secondary Institutions
• Institutional Strategy and Practice