Commenting on the publication of revised Key Stage
4 performance tables this
morning, Duncan Baldwin, Deputy Director of Policy at the
Association of School and College Leaders, said:
“Today’s school performance tables come with a health
warning. The headline statistic is Progress 8 which measures the
progress made by pupils between 11 and 16. This is better than
the old system of judging school performance solely on GCSE
attainment regardless of their pupils’ starting point, but it is
by no means perfect.
“Some groups of disadvantaged pupils make less progress
than others because of challenges in their lives, and this can
penalise schools with more disadvantaged pupils. Progress scores
are also disproportionately skewed by a very small number of
pupils with unusually low results which may be outside the
school’s control such as a pupil who misses exams because of a
long-term absence.
“We would therefore urge extreme caution about ranking
schools according to this data.
“ASCL is campaigning for reform of school performance
tables so that they include a broader range of information more
relevant to parents such as the rounded education provided by a
school’s extra-curricular provision. This would provide a more
complete picture of the work of schools and would be more
useful.
“These performance tables come after a series of problems
dating back to September in collecting and processing
qualification data, the most recent of which resulted in a
two-week delay to the information published today. We support the
Department for Education’s decision to delay publication because
it is essential to make sure the data is accurate. However, these
difficulties do not inspire confidence in the processes for
compiling school performance tables and we urge the department to
review its systems carefully to ensure they are more robust in
the future.”
