The Department for Education today published
revised GCSE data and
secondary school performance tables.
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and
College Leaders, said: “Today’s secondary school
performance tables cannot be compared with previous years because
the government has once again moved the goalposts. The new 9-1
grading system for GCSE English and maths has complicated the way
in which the headline measures of school performance are
calculated, with Attainment 8 and Progress 8 having to be worked
out using a combination of 9-1 grades and the old A*-G
grades.
“As the DfE itself says in today’s statistics, these changes
are the main reason why there has been an increase in the number
of schools which are deemed to be below the ‘floor standard’ for
Progress 8. It is extremely unfair that more schools find
themselves in this situation because of complex changes to the
way in which this is calculated.
“It is also very frustrating that the bar for achievement in
English and maths has been raised arbitrarily to a grade 5 under
the new system, which is higher than the old standard of grade C.
And it is potentially baffling for parents and employers that
schools are now judged on grade 5 – described as a ‘strong pass’
– while grade 4 is good enough to be deemed a ‘standard
pass’.
“Our message to the DfE, trust boards, governors and
inspectors is to avoid leaping to judgement on the basis of these
performance tables. They only tell us a limited amount about the
true quality of a school. The qualifications system is undergoing
significant change and there will continue to be turbulence in
summer 2018 with the next phase of new-style GCSEs.”
Ends
Editors’ notes:
Page 35 of the DfE’s Revised GCSE and
equivalent results in England 2016 to 2017 explains: “A
number of factors have contributed to the increase in the number
of schools below the floor standard. Changes to the point scores
allocated to grades in unreformed GCSEs to reflect the
introduction of new GCSEs graded 9 to 1 in English and maths is
the main reason for the increase. The changes mean the range of
possible Attainment 8 scores has increased and there is more
spread in Progress 8 scores.”
