Why Demonstrating Progress Matters More Than Ever in Maths and English

The FE sector has spent years focusing on outcomes. Pass rates remain important, but many providers tell us that inspection conversations increasingly explore a broader question: how do you know learners are making progress throughout their programme? Increasingly, it’s not enough to demonstrate that learners achieve at the end of their course. Providers are also expected to show how they have identified starting points, monitored progress and adapted teaching and interventions to support learner success throughout the journey.

For learners studying GCSE or Functional Skills English and maths, that can be difficult to evidence if progress is measured only through an initial assessment and a series of mock exams.

The Challenge

Initial assessments establish a learner’s starting point and are essential.

Final examinations determine whether they achieve.

But what happens in between?

Many providers still rely on a small number of assessments throughout the year. While these may predict likely outcomes, they often provide limited evidence of how knowledge has developed over time or which interventions have had the greatest impact.

What Educators are Changing

Increasingly, providers are moving towards more continuous assessment models.

Rather than relying solely on mock examinations, they are collecting regular evidence across individual curriculum areas to understand:

• where learners are improving;
• which topics remain barriers to success;
• whether interventions are having the desired impact;
• how quickly learners are progressing towards readiness for assessment.

This creates a much richer picture of learner development than a single score every few months.

Why this Matters

For teachers, this means interventions can become more targeted.

For curriculum leaders, it provides confidence that learners are progressing as expected.

For inspection, it enables providers to explain not only where learners started and where they finished, but also the journey between those two points and the evidence underpinning the decisions made along the way. From our conversations with colleges and apprenticeship providers, this is increasingly becoming a key focus of Ofsted inspection discussions.

Evidencing Progress

The use of learning analytics and assessment technology is likely to become increasingly common, not because inspection frameworks require it, but because providers need practical ways to evidence progress across hundreds or thousands of learners. Technology isn’t there to replace professional judgement, but to give educators richer evidence to support it. By tracking progress across multiple assessments and curriculum areas, providers can better identify where interventions are needed, measure their impact and demonstrate the distance travelled from a learner’s starting point to exam readiness.

By Oliver Naylor, co-CEO at Pass