15th May 2009
By Vivienne Russell
School ratings are to be broadened with a report card that aims to replace crude academic league tables with a more rounded picture of performance.
Schools Secretary Ed Balls last week accepted all the recommendations of the Expert Group on Assessment Arrangements, which was set up in the wake of mounting concerns about the national testing regime and the league tables it informs.
The group also recommended that Key Stage Two science tests for 11-year-olds be replaced with a system of teacher assessment and national sampling. Externally set and marked tests in maths and English at Key Stage Two will, however, remain. Key Stage Three tests for 14-year-olds have already been abandoned.
The expert group’s report criticised the current league table system for giving too narrow a picture of school performance. ‘They do not recognise the extra challenges some schools face in helping children from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed,’ the May 7 report said.
‘They ignore discipline and attendance, parental satisfaction and the vital contribution that schools make to children’s wider development.’
A report card would provide information on all these aspects of school performance and help parents make meaningful comparisons between schools, the report said.
Balls said abolishing league tables as such was not an option but agreed that the report card, which will be introduced in 2011, would provide a more balanced picture of school performance.
‘I know there are strong views around whether the school report card should be based on a single grade or a combination of grades measuring attainment, progress and wellbeing,’ he said.
‘But without an overall score or grade… it is very hard to see how it can allow appropriate comparisons between schools to be made.’
Balls promised to consult further on the details, which are to be included in the forthcoming schools white paper.
But the largest teaching union has reacted with dismay. National Union of Teachers general secretary Christine Blower said it was ‘whistling in the wind’ to say the report card would solve the problem of league tables.
‘If every child is tested, the media will find ways of accessing the information to produce school performance tables,’ she said.
Blower added that there was ‘no logic’ to getting rid of science tests but keeping those for maths and English. ‘If teacher assessment is judged to be good enough for science, then why not for other subjects?’
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said scrapping Key Stage Two science tests was a ‘step in the right direction’.
