A C0NSTRUCTIVE CRITIQUE OF THE SCHOOL REPORT-CARD AS CURRENTLY PROPOSED

In October 2008, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (Ed Ball MP) announced his intention to improve how schools’ performance is reported to parents, communities and other stakeholders, providing clear and comprehensive information in a new School Report Card.

This website offers the following criticism of the presently proposed report card, with suggestions for a form which would be more 'parent friendly'.

It is argued:

(a) that the current design, by trying to serve four audiences, will fail to provide the kind of information that parents seek when choosing schools for their children (and this is considered to be the most important function of the School Report Card);

(b) that the notion of an ‘overall score’ is meaningless and therefore will mislead parents, demean the work of schools, and cause dissatisfaction among those whose child fails to get into a parental choice of the ‘top grade’ school;

I Analytical comments on the proposed School Report Card

1. These comments are based on the version of the School Report Card (abbreviated here as the ‘Card’) under consultation in February 2010. They also draw on the DCSF’s publication, ‘A School Report Card: consultation document’ dated 2008 (abbreviated here as the ‘Consultation’).

2. The Consultation states, in its second paragraph:

On 14 October 2008, the Secretary of State announced his intention to improve how schools’ performance is reported to parents, communities and other stakeholders, providing clear and comprehensive information in a new School Report Card.

3. In paragraph 8 this is elaborated:

… we think that the arrangements for reporting school performance and holding them to account could be significantly improved. We believe that there is an opportunity to make the school accountability system more coherent, better co-ordinated, more streamlined and better able to recognise the full range of each school’s achievements. However, this will only be possible if each school’s performance is reported in a way which is clear, powerful, easily understood and easily used by school governors, parents and the public.

The underlining is mine and points to my concern about the present draft of the Card.

4. Paragraph 9 sets out the aims of the Card and here it becomes clear that it is being designed with four different audiences in mind.

For parents and carers, the new School Report Card will:

 provide a clearer, more balanced and comprehensive account of each school’s performance, which complements Ofsted’s inspection reports; inform parents’ choice of school and improve schools’ accountability to parents; and provide information in a more easily understandable format, which is accessible to a wider audience.

For schools, the new School Report Card will:

 provide a single, clear and prioritised set of outcomes against which schools will be judged by all parts of the system, with predictable consequences for both excellent or poor performance; recognise the value of schools’ work for all children and across all outcomes (but only hold schools to account for those outcomes they can influence); and provide a balanced account of outcomes achieved and the degree of challenge faced by each school.

For government the new School Report Card will:

 provide a means of achieving the vision for 21st century schools; help to hold schools predictably and consistently to account for what is most important; and incentivise schools in the right way, and remove perverse incentives.

For Ofsted, the new School Report Card will:

 support the school inspection process.

5. The present draft of the Card lists a number of factors:

Overall score - A single letter alphabetical grade

Pupil Progress, Pupil Attainment, Pupil Wellbeing, Pupils’ Perceptions, Parents’ Perceptions

Each of these is given an alphabetical grade, a score in the form X out of Y, and an indication as to whether it has gone up, down or stayed the same as last year

Narrowing Gaps in Pupil Performance - Expressed as X credits

This is followed by Ofsted judgements on Overall effectiveness, Behaviour, and Safeguarding; an alphabetical grade for the quality of the Partnership that the school belongs to, with the Ofsted judgement of the effectiveness of the partnership in promoting learning and well-being; graphs for the past four years of the five parameters noted above; and then Background information about the school including address, type, number of pupils; and then four SEN statistics, viz:

Total number of pupils with SEN, with statements or on School Action Plus

Percentage of pupils with SEN, with statements or on School Action Plus

Total number of pupils with SEN, supported at School Action

Percentage of pupils with SEN, supported at School Action

A final section is a statement from the school, which in the example given is about the ethos of the school and a reference to a 20-place MLD Unit.

6. It is difficult to see any merit whatsoever in this card as a vehicle for communicating “clear and comprehensive information” about a school to parents and carers. How can this possibly “inform parents’ choice of school”. Many of the characteristics cited will no doubt read as utter gobbledygook to the majority of parents and they may wonder why they need to be told so much about pupils with SEN and about the school’s partnership.

7. Clearly it is a major error to try to produce a Card that addresses all of the four audiences. And surely it is parents to whom the state owes the major obligation to describe its schools.

8. What do parents searching for a school want to know? If they are thinking about the child’s future employment potential they will want to know what subjects are taught in the final years of the school and how successful are the students taking these at present. If they are concerned about the happiness of their child in a new school they may want data provided by existing students. If they wonder what parents of children at the school think about it they may want relevant data on their level of satisfaction with the school. Rather than a vacuous statement of ethos they might want to know of the schools plans for the next five years, such as new buildings, curriculum changes, or sports ambitions.

To illustrate these points two hypothetical examples of School Cards are suggested, with fictional accounts of how the parents of six eleven-year-olds might use these in making their choice of school.

They refer to secondary schools and the point needs to be stressed that primary schools and secondary schools require different Card formats. In terms of a School Report Card secondary school parents will be interested in performance in GCSE subjects and primary school parents will be concerned with how the pupils perform in terms of national curriculum levels of achievement (hopefully measured by teachers rather than external tests).

Giving Ofsted judgements may be misleading since for some schools they may be at least four years out of date. It might be better to simply give a website address for parents to read the most recent report.

II Suggested alternative data for the Card (1): DARWIN SCHOOL

GCSE results for 2009: there were 100 students overall entered: figures represent numbers of students in each category. In English and maths all students were entered for the examinations.

‘Happiness’ of students In each year there were about 100 students who all answered this question, anonymously, in May during a class lesson. Figures represent numbers giving each answer. Results are given for students in Years 7,9 and 11.

During this school year how happy have you felt in school? A: Happy most or all of the time; B: Happy for much of the time; C: Happy for some of the time but unhappy at other times; D: Unhappy for much of the time; E: Unhappy for all or nearly all of the time; X: Can’t answer

Opinion of parents In June each year the parents of students in Years 8 and 10 are sent a questionnaire seeking their level of satisfaction with the education of their child. Not everybody replies.

To what extent are you satisfied with the education provided by the school for your child?A: Satisfied with all or nearly all aspects of my child’s school education; B: Satisfied with most aspects; C: Satisfied with some, but dissatisfied with other aspects; D: Dissatisfied with many aspects; E: Very dissatisfied with the education provided by the school for my child; X: Can’t answer.

School statement: We hope in 2013 to open a new block for teaching biological science. A year later it is planned to open a computer suite devoted to Media Studies.

III Suggested alternative data for the Card (2): MILTON SCHOOL

GCSE results for 2009: there were 100 students overall entered: figures represent numbers of students in each category. In English and maths all students were entered for the examinations.

‘Happiness’ of students In each year there were about 100 students who all answered this question, anonymously, in May during a class lesson. Figures represent numbers giving each answer. Results are given for students in Years 7, 9 and 11.

During this school year how happy have you felt in school: A: Happy most or all of the time; B: Happy for much of the time; C: Happy for some of the time but unhappy at other times; D: Unhappy for much of the time; E: Unhappy for all or nearly all of the time; X: Can’t answer

Opinion of parents In June each year the parents of students in Years 8 and 10 are sent a questionnaire seeking their level of satisfaction with the education of their child. Not everyone replies.

To what extent are you satisfied with the education provided by the school for your child? A: Satisfied with all or nearly all aspects of my child’s school education; B: Satisfied with most aspects; C: Satisfied with some, but dissatisfied with other aspects; D: Dissatisfied with many aspects; E: Very dissatisfied with the education provided by the school for my child; X: Can’t answer.

School statement: In 2011 we will be extending the exchange facilities for students taking modern languages so that every such student can spend up to six weeks abroad in a situation where no English is spoken. By 2012 we expect that our gymnasium and swimming bath will have been completely refurbished.

IV Notes on how the pupil and parent data might be obtained

(1) In the first week of May each year a questionnaire is given to every student, to be filled in during a class lesson, anonymously, without any discussion, folded over and handed to an invigilator. Each school asks its own questions, but there is the one standard question which is analysed for this report, on happiness. To avoid an overload of data only the responses from years 7, 9 and 11 are given on the School Report Card.

(2) In the first week of June a questionnaire is sent out with each student in Years 8 and 10 for their parents to complete and return to the school in a sealed envelope. There is one form per family but, where parents are separated or divorced two copies are distributed. There may be several questions that the school chooses to ask, but there is one standard question which is analysed for this report. Inevitably only a proportion of families respond, as is noted by the number of responses.

NB It is important that such data is collected rigorously, with careful measures to ensure that overzealous teachers or unsuitable timing do not bias the results and that confidentiality is strictly maintained.

V How these alternative School Report Cards supported by school prospectuses could be used by parents choosing a school for their eleven-year-old child

Mrs Adamson. Mrs Adamson is a single parent working in a factory and having a difficult time with her son Alan. He left primary school having achieved less than the level 4 ‘expected’ by the government in both English and maths and she reckons that school will continue to be a trial for him. Looking at the two School Report Cards she can’t decide which academic programme would suit him best, but having received the prospectus from each school she realises that the sports programme of Milton School is the more exciting and so she plumps for that.

Mr and Mrs Brown. Mr Brown is an accountant and Mrs Brown has a science degree and works part-time in a medical laboratory. They are keen that young Barbara should have the opportunity of going to university to study one of the sciences and she agrees. The School Report Cards show that Darwin School clearly has a better record for science and maths than Milton and although there are signs that students at Darwin are less happy with their work and the parents are less satisfied than at Milton, the Browns are confident that their daughter will overcome any difficulties and so opt for Darwin School.

Mr and Mrs Clarke. Like the Browns they are professional people, both working hard and anxious that their Chloe should do well at school, so that like them she can get a good white collar job. But they know she is a sensitive child, easily hurt and so her happiness is important to them. Looking at the student responses from the two schools on the School Report Cards they decide that Milton School will be best for her.

Mr and Mrs Drake. Mr Drake is a railway porter and Mrs Drake works part-time as an office cleaner. They want young Desmond to get a better education than either of them had and hence obtain a job which ‘brings in good money’. The primary school teacher who taught Desmond last year says he is good at English and has an ear for French: she urges them to visit Milton School, where the GCSE results in English are better than at Darwin, but they are reluctant to ring up and ask to see round. When they see the School Report Card and realise that Milton gets good vibes from its students and has plans for language students to spend time abroad, they opt for it.

Mr and Mrs Evans. They are the grandparents of Edward and are bringing him up while his parents are abroad. Mr Evans was an office worker in the City and Mrs Evans worked for years as a secretary in a printing firm. They want to see Edward getting prepared for ‘the real world’ and so are attracted by the fact that the School Report Card for Darwin shows that it teaches Business Studies and Media Studies. When Grannie Evans says that the card shows that a lot of parents seem not very satisfied with the school her husband retorts ‘That’s typical of the people round here – don’t take any notice. Did you read that they are having a computer suite for media studies?’ They choose Darwin for Edward.

Mr and Mrs Finnegan. Mr Finnegan is a city banker who, notwithstanding a large salary (and substantial bonuses) likes ‘to count his pennies’. Mrs Finnegan does charitable work for the local donkeys’ rest home. Examining the School Report Cards for Darwin and Milton Schools, Mr Finnegan reckons that their academic record is not good enough for their Frederick and so, having benefited from state support for his primary education, they decide to fork out for Frederick to go to an independent school, where they expect small classes and good social contacts will give him the advantages in life that they think he deserves.

VI Conclusions

The idea of a Report Card for a school could be useful in helping parents decide which school may be best for their child. However, the currently proposed design, by trying to serve four audiences, will fail to provide the kind of information that parents seek when choosing schools for their children (and this should be the essential function of the School Report Card). In terms of the three other uses envisaged by the Consultation Document, it is questionable whether the school, or any agency or authority examining the school, needs more documents on its intended outcomes and current performance; it is obscure as to how the currently proposed design will aid the government (‘a means of achieving the vision’, ‘hold schools to account for what is most important’, ‘incentivise schools in the right way and remove perverse incentives’); it is unnecessary to add to Ofsted’s existing data-base a rehash of existing data. It is parents that lack the information about their local schools, not the schools themselves, nor government, nor Ofsted. Without doubt, an effective Report Card could be invaluable to parents looking at schools for their offspring.

But what would an effective Report Card look like? To start with a negative, it should not carry a single ‘overall score’ as proposed on the current version. A single letter: A, B, C, D or E as an ‘overall score’ is meaningless and will mislead parents, demean the work of schools, and cause dissatisfaction among those whose child fails to get into a parental choice of the ‘top grade’ school. The educational experience of say 1000 students over several years in a range of subjects and a wealth of extra-curricula activities cannot be compressed with any honesty or justice into a single grade.

I suggest that a better design would entail (for a secondary school) a focus on:

(i) the current achievements of students in the range of subjects taken at GCSE;

(ii) the extent to which students in say Years 7, 9 and 11 consider themselves to be happy in school;

(iii) the extent to which parents of students in say Years 8 and 10 are satisfied with the work of the school; and

(iv) a brief statement by the school of expected developments over the next five years.This would give parents some idea of what a school is like now, and, in the climate of standard raising, a reasonable hope that this gives the baseline for future development. There can be no certainty, but at least this would help them to make a sensible guess as to the appropriate school for their child. Hopefully they will find it has places available.

Similar structures for a primary School Report Card need to be designed.