28 November 2003
Education ministers were this week urged to widen the scope of pupil assessments, after the National Audit Office discovered that most schools achieve similar standards once factors such as deprivation are taken into account.
In a report published on November 28, the watchdog also claimed that many supposedly 'high-achieving' schools were actually 'coasting'. They enjoyed the comforts of, for example, a relatively deprivation-free pupil intake yet achieved only marginally more than schools with diverse social, cultural and economic problems.
Similarly, some schools with traditionally low attainment levels were making more of a positive difference, in spite of severe restrictions.
Commenting on the report, Making a difference, NAO education manager Paul Dimblebee said: 'Our findings indicate some schools could be coasting, when you consider wider factors that impact on pupil performance. There is a need for new data to be included in the government's analysis of schools.'
The Department for Education and Skills recently expanded its controversial school performance tables to include a 'value-added' element – which accounts for previous pupil attainment, one of the biggest influences on later achievements. But the tables are still based on bottom-line academic achievement.
The NAO, however, concluded that adjusting for wider external factors for which data are freely available, such as the number of pupils receiving free school meals, 'provides a more robust and objective assessment of school performance – in terms of the difference schools make.'
Analysing the results of 1 million pupils who sat either the Key Stage Three test (for 14-year-olds) or GCSEs during 2002, the auditors discovered that the vast differences in school performances 'diminish substantially' when these wider external influences are considered.
Auditors did find, however, 'some association' between certain schools and the difference they make to achievement. Selective, specialist, faith, Beacon and single-sex schools all achieved higher than average rankings under the NAO's expanded system.
NAO chief Sir John Bourn urged the DfES and schools inspection body Ofsted to adopt similar analyses.
But, while sources at the DfES confirmed that policy architects are 'keen to expand their understanding of all factors that impact on pupil attainment', the department has not yet committed to adopting further changes.
It will, however, come under pressure from the Commons' Public Accounts Committee. Chair Edward Leigh said: 'It is crucially important to find out what difference schools really make. This is not a matter of ranking schools by the number of exams passed and the grades achieved.'
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