Literacy Attainment Data and Discourse is an ESRC Fellowship which will collect literacy attainment data from three contrasting historical periods and explore variations in their contemporary analysis. The three time-periods reflect different points in the emergence of the education system and its organisation: in the 1860-90s when attainment data were collected to facilitate state funding for elementary education; in the 1950s, when the 11-plus exam data were used to ensure transition into 'appropriate' forms of secondary schooling. And PISA data, analysed by the OECD, to help drive school system reform. To understand these data in context further documentary evidence will be sought on how and why the data have arisen in this form; the underlying hypotheses which shape their structure and analysis; and the broader policy debates in which the data are situated and to which their statistical analysis contributes.This historical and comparative analysis will be used to throw light on contemporary issues in literacy policy, with particular reference to gender and literacy attainment.These three datasets will also be used to explore the ebb and flux of different explanatory theories and predictions which underpin quantitative model building and help shape both data use and design.

Quantitative data: retrieving and cleaning literacy attainment data from the Annual Report of the Committee of Council on Education for the years 1864, 66, 68, 70, and 72. These were entered into and analysed through SPSS. The observation units are the religious bodies in receipt of government funding, and the aggregate figures given in the annual report for the numbers of pupils entered and passing six standards of exams in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Qualitative: An archive of 19th century source materials documenting the growth of the elementary education system in the first half of the 19th century, with particular emphasis on policy; school organisation and the literacy curriculum. This data is deposited as a reference list with URLs linking to the GoogleBooks website and the actual texts