School league tables: what they tell us and why we need to change them

Ralph Lucas, editor of the Good Schools Guide, gives his view on Key Stage 2 league tables as they are, and how they could be …

"Our current Key Stage 2 league tables do almost as much harm as good. The exams are narrow. The results are unreliable. Teachers are pushed to teach to the test, so children’s education is impoverished and the curriculum distorted. Many in the education world - notably teachers' unions - want Key Stage tests abolished.

But dropping them altogether would be worse: why should parents be left without information where decisions about their children's education is concerned? It’s only natural that they want to know how well their children are doing at school, and how well their school is faring compared with others.

Before the advent of league tables, schools and local authorities kept us in the dark.

What can the Key Stage 2 results tell us about schools?

At the Good Schools Guide we look for:

•    A good percentage of grade 5s - you want to know that this is a school where pupils can excel

•    At least 80% grade 4s (though some schools have a good excuse for lower figures). Kids at grade 3 or lower have not been prepared for secondary school. If a school is working well, there should only be about 5% grades 3 or lower, as shown by the West Dunbartonshire experiment where illiteracy among children leaving primary school was cut from 28% to almost zero in ten years

•    Results over 3 years – schools can have blips up or down depending on the ability of a particular year group. Look for the overall positive or negative trend.

•    Good value added between KS1 and KS2 for the brightest children (to show that the school is not overwhelmed by the problems of the rest) and for children with Special Educational Needs (because a school that cares well for them usually does well by all its pupils, whatever individual challenges they present). Subscribers to the Good Schools Guide can see our analysis of value added scores for every state primary in England

But Key Stage exams are not the only way of keeping parents informed of a school’s academic attainment. Parents would be better served - and teachers cheered up - if we moved to a system of Moderated Teacher Assessment.

Trusting assessment to the teachers may terrify the bean counters, but it works. The International Baccalaureate (IB) uses it in its Middle and Early Years Programmes, and the quality of its marking system is widely respected and proven through long use.

Moderated Teacher Assessment only works in good schools: it's something schools have to earn. And you need a good system of training and checks. The IB has shown how this can be done. Once a school has qualified for moderated teacher assessment, there's a great incentive to run the system properly: schools that break the rules get chucked out.

And once it's in place you have reliable figures combined with great freedom - the best of both worlds."

Read School Gate on:

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Comments

[Trish]

Before SATs existed we still knew which were the good schools and which weren't by their reputation which was a far more honest assessment than this current format. SATs should be scrapped full stop. They are a waste of time and just put unnecessary pressure on children and schools to show, at the end of the day, the best school at teaching SATs - not education.

[Glen Thomas]

SATs results are more closely linked to the social background of the students and their disposition to learn than they are to the performance of the school.

You can predict a school's SAT score average mostly by looking at the intake, and that would be much cheaper, and less stressful, for the pupils herded though exam prep for half the year.

Poor SATs = rough school = avoid.

What need for a Guide then?

[Lucy]

'..and how well their school is faring compared with others.'
But what good does it do to know your childs school is coming last, or first for that matter?

[Gipsy]

The interesting thing is Glen, we have two schools near us. One has slightly above average SATs, but no-one wants to send their kids there. And the school all the parents fight over to get their kids scores lower in the SATs. These tests might be a starting point for telling apart schools, but the only real way to determine which school you want your child to go to is to talk to other parents, do a school visit, and visit the school gates at the beginning or end of day (perferably do both). A good study of the Ofsted report is helpful, and finally at the bottom of the criteria is the SATs results.