A method for assessing schools' performance in relation to socioeconomic indicators of their location is described. A substantial proportion of the variance in General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) results is accounted for by indicators such as the percentage of owner-occupied houses in the area around the school. The addition of car ownership, unemployment, and overcrowding to give a composite normalised score known as the Townsend Index accounted for more than half the variance in the GCSE results of two West Midlands local education authorities (LEAs). The results are critically discussed.