Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge (initially known as Excellence Challenge) was specifically established by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in 2001, with the aim of increasing the number of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who had the qualifications and aspirations necessary to enter higher education. The analysis conducted for this report aimed to address some key research questions about the extent to which Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge had made an impact on young people's attainment and on their aspirations towards obtaining a place in higher education. The report begins with an overview, in Chapter 2, of the datasets included in the analysis, before providing a profile of the responding cohorts in Chapter 3. This profile outlines a range of background factors (such as sex, ethnic background, socio-economic and family variables) and attainment at Key Stages 3 and 4 (split by pupil background characteristics and school characteristics). Chapter 4 explores the relationship between attainment, attitude, aspirations and educational interventions, taking into account background variables at pupil and school level. It presents the findings from a series of multilevel cross-sectional and longitudinal models. For pupils in Year 11, these include multilevel models that examine the relationship between interventions and best (or capped) eight GCSE scores, and logistic multilevel models examining the probability of a young person achieving five or more GCSEs at A* to C. It also includes models exploring the relationship between policy-related interventions and young people's attitudes to learning, young people's behaviour and young people's aspirations to higher education. Chapter 5 explores the links between the statistically significant findings from the modelling process and the results of both quantitative and qualitative analysis carried out elsewhere in the evaluation and looks at the implications of these findings for the wider Aimhigher policy. The following are appended: (1) Tabular breakdown of the number of responses, by year and from treatment and comparison schools; (2) Tables showing representativeness of the young people (in Year 11) who responded to the surveys in 2001/02, 2002/03 and 2003/04 compared with all pupils in these cohorts in England; (3) Tables listing the range of background variables, derived variables and interaction terms used in the models; (4) List of all Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge reports; and (5) Information about the evaluation. (Contains 12 tables, 10 figures, and 65 footnotes.) [This report was produced by the Department for Education and Skills.]