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].
In short, the OSR agrees with the NEU. The OSR have challenged
the idea that the education system can be judged by comparing
Ofsted grades today to those from over a decade ago.
Grades have changed meaning repeatedly over the past 14 years.
The OSR agrees with the NEU that it is difficult to compare these
grades over time because of significant changes, including the
2012 change from 'Satisfactory' to 'Requires Improvement' and
additional framework changes in 2015 and 2019, as well as the
extended pause on inspections of 'Outstanding' schools and
disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. 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 easily
come down to when it was inspected.
In response to the OSR, Ofsted has updated their explanation of
why their single-word judgements do not always mean the same
thing from one year to the next. 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.
Crucial judgements, including ‘quality of education', did not
exist until 2019 and thus cannot be compared to earlier data.
and the DfE have continued
using this unfair comparison to mislead the public [6].
After the OSR's response, we hope they instead offer an
honest picture of the impact their government has had on
education over the past 14 years.
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
upheld our complaint about the misleading way in which uses Ofsted statistics.
"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. This response
from the OSR highlights the way this government has redefined
Ofsted grades to suit their goals and policies and used schools
as a political football.
"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.
"Instead of addressing these serious issues, is taking a lap of honour.
She has also been caught using data in a misleading way, just in
order to boast about Government achievements that are nothing of
the sort.
"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
-
https://x.com/GillianKeegan/status/1788922219747328381
