Saturday, 24 January 2026
Our aim in data analysis is to move beyond merely describing to really understanding. Robust statistical analysis provides the starting point for an in-depth process of model building and testing where we pull together qualitative and quantitative data from primary and secondary research to confidently triangulate valuable insights, often uncovering new issues and approaches.
Our infrastructure gives us the capacity to work with datasets comprising millions of records from multiple sources, allowing us to ground our findings in the widest evidence base possible.
Case Study
The STEM (Science, Technology and Maths) evaluation involved a number of providers who worked with secondary school pupils, running science and technology events to help improve attitudes to those subjects.

We evaluated the impact of these events by examining attitudes to STEM before and after the event and also Key Stage examination results.

Since Key Stage examinations differ from stage to stage and year on year, a direct comparison of results before and after the event is impossible. For example, a cohort might visit an event between their KS2 and KS3 examinations, and we might expect that their KS3 exam results would be better as a result, but because KS2 and KS3 are different examinations, we can’t simply compare one result with another.

To address this, we devised an analysis which enabled us to say how well each cohort of pupils performed relative to its local authority at each Key Stage. This used Monte Carlo Simulation to create a very large number of cohorts drawn from a simulation of the whole local authority which were then ranked in order of Key Stage performance. We were then able to position the actual cohorts within this ranking.
This enabled us to objectively assess changes in the cohort’s performance when compared to pupils who had not been involved in any STEM events, allowing us both to describe the relationship between attitude change and performance change, and to identify those providers having the greatest positive effect on performance.
The Hoshin team has a broad range of knowledge and experience,
helping people collect, analyse and communicate through knowledge management.
If you need to contact us, please email on info@hoshin.co.uk
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