About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about frequency counts and their importance by looking at data on Free School Meal (FSM) eligibility and how it can be used to identify patterns of deprivation in education, focusing in particular on: (i) how frequency counts are put together; (ii) the usefulness of FSM data for education researchers; (iii) an example of comparing frequencies between pupils who are FSM-eligible, not FSM-eligible, and whose FSM status is unknown, in which we identify a super-deprived group in education; (iv) how missing data should be handled by researchers.

About the lecturer

Professor Stephen Gorard is Professor of Education and Public Policy and Director of the Evidence Centre for Education at Durham University. He has written very widely on educational inequalities, education policy, and research methods. His recent publications include How to Make Sense of Statistics (2021), How Can We Get Educators to Use Research Evidence? (2019, co-author), and Education Policy: Evidence of Equity and Effectiveness (2018).