National student assessments in England have been published by the Department for Education and Skills in the form of School Performance Tables or Achievement and Attainment Tables, ostensibly for the purpose of informing parent choice of schools for their children and to encourage competition between schools. As these tables have evolved there has been constant criticism of their format and content. (Gorard, 2006; Gorard & Smith, 2004; Tymms & Dean, 2004) Previous studies (Arthur & Godfrey, 2006; Morris & Godfrey, 2006) that have investigated the comparative academic success of students in faith and non-faith schools within the publicly maintained sector in terms of a number of various formats, including most of those used by DfES, are extended in this paper to encompass the remaining formats..Data used came from the National Pupil Database for assessment results and demographic information from the Pupil Level Annual School Census. Earlier studies began with (a) points scores as calculated for individual students and published as school means by DfES at the end of Key Stages 1,2,3 and 4 (Ages 7, 11, 14, 16); (b) capped points scores for Key Stage 4; (c) Value Added scores based on students' normed increase in points scores from one Key Stage to the next and published as school means centred on 100 or 1000 (DfES, 2005a, 2005b). Analysis has continued with (d) residuals from multilevel models to take account of demographic factors for each student (anticipating the contextual value added scores now being piloted by DfES); (e) the previous results centred on area means ; and (f) the previous results adjusted for school types (for example comprehensive or selective schools). The new analysis moves away from quasi-continuous numerical scores requiring linear regression and considers how the picture is changed by considering only whether students at various ages attain set national thresholds. As the data for this are binary (or at most ordinal) logistic regression or multinomial logistic regression is possible, with potential for producing very different models and different results.So far analysis has suggested that the format in which school performance tables are published has little effect on national level comaprisons between types of school. Moving from (a) points scores to (c) value added scores reduced the magnitude of differences between faith school groups; but subsequent variatons of analyis made on subtle changes to the patterns found. The anticipated result of the current analysis is that the crude dichotomy between students above and below threshold will give an exaggerated difference between schools, but that when thresholds are adapted (in parallel to the earlier treament of points scores) a similar damping of the differences will occur. The results will be equally important if this does not happen. Arthur, J. and Godfrey, R. (2006) Statistical Survey of the Attainment and Avhievement of Pupils in Church of England Schools. London: The National Society DfES (2005a) 2005 Primary School (Key Stage 2) Attainment and Achievement Tables: Value Added technical Information, http://www.dfes.gov.uk/performancetables/primary_05/p8.shtml DfES (2005b) Secondary School Attainment and Achievement Tables 2005: Value Added technical Information, http://www.dfes.gov.uk/performancetables/schools_05/sec9.shtml Gorard, S. (2006) Value Added is of little value. Journal of Education Policy, .21(2) March 2006 , 235-243 Gorard, S. and Smith, E. (2004) What is 'underattainment' at school?, School Leadership and Management, 24(2) 205-225 Morris, A. and Godfrey, R. (2006) A statistical Survey of Attainment in Roman Catholic schools in England with Particular Reference to Secondary Schools Operating Under the Trust Deed of the Archdiocese of Birmingham. Canterbury: National Institute for Christian Education Research Tymms, P. and Dean, C. (2004) Value-Added in the Primary School League Tables: a report for the National Association of Head Teachers. National Association of Head TeachersAfter feedback from conference delegates and elsewhere, this paper should be suitable for a UK journal. If delegates suggest the possibility of links to a wider debate a European journal might be appropriate.