28 May 2004
League tables purporting to show the progress made by primary school children are unfair and misleading and should be abandoned, head teachers have said.
Research has shown the value-added tables are 'fatally flawed', according to the National Association of Head Teachers, distorted by pupil numbers, turnover and a failure to compare like with like.
The tables are calculated by taking seven-year-olds' scores at Key Stage Two and measuring their performance aged 11 against the average for those with a similar KS2 score. It is supposed to be a fairer yardstick for measuring pupils' progress.
But researchers from Durham University found that the small size of many primaries meant they fell prey to 'wild fluctuations' in performance from year to year even though teaching remained consistent.
The methodology also failed to consider pupil turnover: 11-year-olds are assessed against the KS2 results from four years previously, irrespective of whether they were at the school.
One of the most serious flaws identified was a pronounced 'ceiling' effect, which stopped schools from getting value-added recognition for high-performing pupils.
Bright children scoring level three at KS2 were expected to get the maximum level five at KS3, but schools were deemed to have added no value to the education of children meeting the target.
NAHT general secretary David Hart called for all performance tables to be scrapped. But he added: 'If they are to remain… government and heads should work together on an acceptable set of value-added scores that tell the truth about how schools are performing.'
PFmay2004
