Today, the Office for Statistics Regulation has written to the
NEU in response to our complaint about the misleading use of
Ofsted data in a recent press release [1] and in
a tweet [2] by . The complaint was brought
by the National Education Union on 18 April and centred on the
failure of the DfE and the Education Secretary to be open about
the very different methods by which Ofsted grades have been
measured since 2010. The NEU's complaint letter can he viewed
here [3] and the OSR response is here [4].
Grades have changed meaning repeatedly over the past 14 years.
The OSR agrees with the NEU that the three changes to the Ofsted
framework, including the 2012 change from 'Satisfactory' to
'Requires Improvement', as well as the extended pause on
inspections of 'Outstanding' schools and disruptions caused by
the Covid-19 pandemic likely influenced the number of good and
outstanding schools. All of these factors mean that the criteria
used to grade schools can change from one inspection to the next
and that how a school is graded can come down to when it was
inspected.
In response to the OSR, Ofsted has updated their guidance to say,
“Users should be aware when examining inspection outcomes over a
long time period that this is a high-level comparison and spans a
period of change in the education system and multiple inspection
frameworks.” Ofsted admits [5] that changes to inspection
framework among other factors “limit that the comparability of
inspection outcomes over time” and that this statistic should be
“used with caution”, particularly when comparing outcomes before
and after the 2015/16 academic year.
Commenting on the decision of the OSR, Daniel
Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union,
said:
"The NEU is pleased that the Office for Statistics Regulation has
told Ofsted to clarify that it is difficult to make comparisons
of Ofsted judgements over long periods of time.
"It was her Government that moved the goalposts in 2012, changing
the definitions of Ofsted school gradings. It was her Government
that changed the inspection framework not once, not twice, but
three times in a single decade. This renders any comparison
between 2010 and 2024 completely meaningless.
"While Ofsted's single-word judgements are a discredited and
inaccurate picture of the work that schools do, it is
unacceptable that the Education Secretary is manipulating them to
distract from the real issues that are facing schools and our
children and young people's education.
"All is not well with our education system. Chronic underfunding,
a teacher recruitment and retention crisis, subjects dropped from
the curriculum, subjects routinely taught by non-specialist
teachers, SEND and mental health support in tatters, buildings
crumbling. This is a snapshot of the education system our
children and young people have been handed by this Government.
"Ahead of a General Election, parties in power depend on the
fading memory of voters when they reach the ballot box. But for
parents, carers and all school staff, a broken system at the
hands of a Government who for 14 years have seriously neglected
children and young people's education will not easily be
forgotten."
EDITOR'S NOTES
-
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/first-step-towards-introducing-the-advanced-british-standard
-
https://twitter.com/GillianKeegan/status/1768225069426241911
- https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/neu-to-ed-humpherson-comparisons-of-the-proportion-of-good-and-outstanding-schools-over-time/
- https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/ed-humpherson-to-neu-comparisons-of-the-proportion-of-good-and-outstanding-schools-over-time/
-
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/state-funded-schools-inspections-and-outcomes-as-at-31-december-2023/methodology-state-funded-schools-inspections-and-outcomes-as-at-31-december-2023#introduction
