An employers' organization said that the education system in England fostered a 'cult of the average', too often failing to stretch the most able or support those who needed most help. 35 years of education reform had focused on narrow measures of performance, such as exams and league tables, which had allowed too many young people to fall behind. The report outlined measures to address this 'conveyor belt of low performance', including: giving more freedom to teachers; moving the focus from league tables to delivering a more rounded education; a shift from GCSEs to making attainment at age 18 the focus of secondary education; and introducing vocational A-levels with the same standing as traditional A-levels.
Source: First Steps: A new approach for our schools, Confederation of British Industry
Links: Report | CBI press release | ASCL press release | NASUWT press release | NUT press release | RSS press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Notes: GCSE = General Certificate of Secondary Education; A = Advanced
Date: 2012-Nov
The inspectorate for education and children's services published its annual report for 2011-12. Schools in England were getting better: but there was still 'a long way to go' before they caught up with the best in the world. There were wide variations in the performance of schools across different local authority areas, leading to 'serious inequities' for children in some parts of the country. The report identified 'major concerns' over the quality of provision in the post-16 learning and skills sector, especially in colleges, which were not adequately preparing young people for the world of work.
Source: The Annual Report of Her Majesty s Chief Inspector of Education, Children s Services and Skills 2011/12, HC 755, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, TSO
Links: Report | OFSTED press release | ADCS press release | AOC press release | ASCL press release | ATL press release | Labour Party press release | LGA press release | LSIS press release | NAHT press release | NASUWT press release | NIACE press release | NUT press release | Daily Mail report | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Nov
A report examined whether the education system in England was doing a good job of mimicking market incentives, in order to facilitate the expansion of popular. Over the previous 10 years, high-performing schools had grown barely any faster than other schools. School expansion had largely been determined by local population changes, with little differentiation between high- and low-performing schools.
Source: Rebecca Allen and Simon Burgess, How Can we Encourage Good Schools to Expand?, Department for Education
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Nov
The Welsh Government published a 20-point action plan aimed at driving up standards and performance in schools in Wales.
Source: Improving Schools, Welsh Government
Links: Plan (summary) | Welsh Government press release | WLGA press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Oct
A think-tank report highlighted the damaging financial and social cost of a 'litigation culture' for health and education. Far from increasing safety and accountability, the culture of litigation had resulted in significant costs in terms of the quality of services, the experience of those who used them, and the role of professionals. As at March 2011, the National Health Service Litigation Authority estimated its potential liabilities at £16.8 billion, of which £16.6 billion related to clinical negligence claims: but of the 63,800 claims for medical negligence made since 2001, only about 2,000 (3.2 per cent) had had damages approved or set by the courts.
Source: Frank Furedi and Jennie Bristow, The Social Cost of Litigation, Centre for Policy Studies
Links: Report | CPS press release | Kent University press release
Date: 2012-Sep
A think-tank report said that the coalition government could not rely on policies such as academies and free schools to narrow the education divide that existed in England between rich and poor pupils. Even if every pupil in the country attended an outstanding school, the achievement gap between the poorest and wealthiest pupils would only be cut by one-fifth. If the education divide were to be closed, there needed to be a greater focus on interventions such as one-to-one tuition and pre-school programmes.
Source: Jonathan Clifton and Will Cook, A Long Division: Closing the attainment gap in England's secondary schools, Institute for Public Policy Research
Date: 2012-Sep
An article provided a detailed critique of the new schools inspection regime in England. Although in certain limited aspects the new regime represented an improvement on its predecessor, the new requirements had many highly problematic elements that undermined the integrity and validity of inspection judgements. Schools in disadvantaged areas were likely to suffer most from some of the deficiencies highlighted.
Source: Colin Richards, 'Ofsted inspection inspected: an examination of the 2012 framework for school inspection and its accompanying evaluation schedule', FORUM: for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education, Volume 54 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Aug
A report said that England's teenagers were just over half as likely to reach the highest levels in maths in international tests as students from other developed nations. The few high-performing pupils in England came mostly from private or grammar schools, with 'almost no pupils' from non-selective state schools. Poor international performance was the result of successive failures of policies and programmes to do enough to stretch the most able children.
Source: Alan Smithers and Pamela Robinson, Educating the Highly Able, Sutton Trust
Links: Report | Sutton Trust press release | ATL press release | NASUWT press release | NUT press release | BBC report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Jul
A paper examined the effect of school expenditure on children s test scores in England at age 16. Evidence was found of a positive but small effect of per pupil expenditure on test scores.
Source: Cheti Nicoletti and Birgitta Rabe, The Effect of School Resources on Test Scores in England, Working Paper 2012-13, Institute for Social and Economic Research (University of Essex)
Links: Working paper | Abstract
Date: 2012-Jul
The education inspectorate in Wales said that only a few secondary schools in Wales identified, supported, and challenged more able and talented pupils.
Source: Supporting More Able and Talented Pupils in Secondary Schools, HM Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales
Links: Report | HMCIETW press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Jun
The inspectorate for education and children's services announced the results of its consultation on changes to the way it inspected schools, further education and skills, and initial teacher education. It confirmed that it would no longer describe schools and other providers as 'satisfactory' where they were not providing a good level of education. From September 2012, the 'satisfactory' grade would be replaced with 'requires improvement'.
Source: Responses to Ofsted's Consultation A Good Education for All on Maintained Schools and Academies, Including Free Schools, HMI 120130, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills
Links: Report | OFSTED press release | NAHT press release | NASUWT press release | NIACE press release | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-May
The education inspectorate in Wales said that very few schools planned effectively enough how to develop the communication, numeracy, and thinking skills of children aged 11-14 across the curriculum.
Source: An Evaluation of the Impact of the Non-Statutory Skills Framework for 3 to 19-Year-Olds in Wales at Key Stage 3, HM Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales
Links: Report | HMCIETW press release | WLGA press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-May
An article examined the association between substance misuse in schools and examination/truancy results, based on research in west Scotland. Contrary to the findings of previous studies, high value-added schools were associated with greater substance use prevalence. High value-added schools occurred throughout the socio-economic spectrum and ranges of exam results and truancy rates. Substance use in Scotland was more likely among disengaged students and those with poorer student-teacher relationships. Associations between value-added education and substance use were not mediated by pupils' perceptions of school ethos.
Source: Wolfgang Markham, Robert Young, Helen Sweeting, Patrick West, and Paul Aveyard, 'Does school ethos explain the relationship between value-added education and teenage substance use? A cohort study', Social Science & Medicine, Volume 75 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
A paper examined the effects of peers on school achievement, with detailed data on children making the same primary to secondary school transition in consecutive years in England. It was found that secondary school composition, on entry at age 12, affected achievement at age 14, although the effect sizes were small. These secondary school peer effects originated in peer characteristics encapsulated in family background and early achievements (age 7), rather than subsequent test score gains in primary school.
Source: Stephen Gibbons and Shqiponja Telhaj, Peer Effects: Evidence from Secondary School Transition in England, Discussion Paper 6455, Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn)
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Apr
A policy statement set out a series of recommendations from directors of children's services on the role of local education authorities – and central government – in encouraging school improvement in England. It was published alongside two research reports that examined local authority approaches to working with schools causing concern, as well as the national policy context and local authority responses to it.
Source: The Missing Link: The evolving role of the local authority in school improvement, Association of Directors of Children's Services | Debbie Pritchard, Schools Causing Concern – A Research Project, Association of Directors of Children's Services | Jonathan Crossley Holland, The Future Role of the Local Authority in Education, Association of Directors of Children's Services
Links: Statement | Report (1) | Report (2) | ADCS press release
Date: 2012-Apr
A study examined the effect of a school failing its inspection. The results suggested that schools only just failing saw a 'moderate to large' improvement in scores over the following 2-3 years. This improvement occurred in core compulsory subjects, suggesting that it was not all the result of course entry gaming on the part of schools. There was little positive impact on lower-ability pupils, with equally large effects for those in the middle and top end of the ability distribution.
Source: Rebecca Allen and Simon Burgess, How Should We Treat Under-Performing Schools? A regression discontinuity analysis of school inspections in England, Working Paper 12/287, Centre for Market and Public Organisation (University of Bristol)
Links: Paper | Bristol University press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Mar
A paper said that inspection ratings could aid in distinguishing between more and less effective schools, even after controlling for standard observed school characteristics. Moreover, a 'fail' inspection led to test score gains, and at least some of these gains persisted in the medium term. There was no evidence to suggest that 'fail' schools were able to inflate test score performance by gaming the system.
Source: Iftikhar Hussain, Subjective Performance Evaluation in the Public Sector: Evidence from school inspections, DP135, Centre for Economic Performance (London School of Economics)
Links: Paper | Abstract | BBC report
Date: 2012-Feb
A paper examined whether the 'subjective' school inspection system in England provided an accurate guide to the quality of schools. It concluded that the system did appear to be effective – in terms of both producing ratings that were valid and being able to identify poorly performing schools, leading to test score gains.
Source: Iftikhar Hussain, Subjective Performance Evaluation in the Public Sector: Evidence from school inspections, DP135, Centre for the Economics of Education (London School of Economics)
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Feb
The education inspectorate in Wales published its annual report for 2010-11. Local authorities and other social care services were increasingly working together across regional and organizational boundaries: but the quality of outcomes varied, and more needed to be done to consistently deliver good-quality assessments and care management for both children and adults.
Source: Chief Inspector's Annual Report 2010-2011, HM Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales
Links: Report | HMCIETW press release | Welsh Government press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Feb
The inspectorate for education and children's services began consultation on proposals for amended inspection arrangements in England from September 2012 for maintained schools and academies, further education and skills, and initial teacher education. Schools could not be judged 'outstanding' unless their teaching was 'outstanding'. Schools would only be deemed to be providing an acceptable standard of education where they were judged to be 'good' or 'outstanding'. A single judgement of 'requires improvement' would replace the existing 'satisfactory' judgement and 'notice to improve' category. Schools judged as 'requires improvement' would be subject to a full re-inspection earlier than was currently the case. A school could only be judged as 'requires improvement' on two consecutive inspections before it was deemed to require 'special measures'. Inspections would be undertaken without notice being provided to the school.
Source: A Good Education for All, HMI 120008, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills
Links: Consultation document | OFSTED press release | ASCL press release | ATL press release | NUT press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Feb
An article examined the effect on pupil achievement of experiencing comprehensive or selective schooling. System differences were found to affect only some high-ability children s educational outcomes.
Source: Judith Glaesser and Barry Cooper, 'Educational achievement in selective and comprehensive local education authorities: a configurational analysis', British Journal of Sociology of Education, Volume 33 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Feb
Researchers examined parents' and young people's complaints about schools in England that involved an individual child. Parental complaints could not be entirely separated from wider 'whole school' issues relating to parental engagement, school policies, and curriculum matters. The vast majority of complaints were resolved satisfactorily through informal channels: but there remained much uncertainty regarding their true scale in the absence of standardized monitoring and reporting at a school level.
Source: Katharine McKenna and Laurie Day, Parents' and Young People's Complaints about Schools, Research Report RR193, Department for Education
Date: 2012-Feb
The coalition government announced (following consultation) that from 2014 just 125 out of the 3,175 qualifications that were accredited and approved for study by young people aged 14-16 would count towards secondary school performance tables in England.
Source: Qualifications for 14-16 Year Olds and Performance Tables, Department for Education
Links: Guidance | Hansard | DE press release | NAHT press release | NASUWT press release | NUT press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2012-Jan
The inspectorate for education and children's services said that the rating of 'satisfactory' for schools would be scrapped as part of plans to tackle 'coasting schools'. Schools that failed to provide a good standard of education would be graded 'requires improvement', and no school would be allowed to stay in this category for more than three years.
Source: Press release 16 January 2012, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills
Links: OFSTED press release | Conservative Party press release | NASUWT press release | NUT press release | Voice press release | Guardian report
Date: 2012-Jan
An article examined two highly influential reports on how to improve school systems produced (in 2007 and 2010) by the consultancy firm McKinsey. Both reports were found to be deficient in 10 different respects.
Source: Frank Coffield, 'Why the McKinsey reports will not improve school systems', Journal of Education Policy, Volume 27 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jan
The education inspectorate in Wales published its annual report for 2010-11. Performance in 4 out of 5 primary schools and 2 out of 3 secondary schools inspected was 'mainly good'. But there were still several areas that were a cause of concern, including children and young people's reading and writing skills, and the uneven quality of teaching and leadership.
Source: Annual Report 2010-2011, HM Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales
Links: Report | HMCIETW press release | NASUWT press release | WLGA press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Jan