All posts tagged: accountability

Accountability focus risks SEND ‘flexibility’

Accountability focus risks SEND ‘flexibility’

Published by skeptic

An over-focus by some mainstream schools on accountability measures when developing their curriculums has resulted in “less flexibility” for pupils with SEND, an Ofsted review has found. The watchdog and the Care Quality Commission have published a joint thematic review of arrangements to prepare children for adulthood in six areas of England. It found children and young people with SEND reported that they “struggle with an overly academic curriculum that does not suit their strengths and, in some cases, acts as a barrier to moving on to their preferred post-16 options”. The review heard that specialist providers “were meeting the individual needs of children and young people by providing a tailored curriculum focused on their aspirations, strengths and needs”. “Conversely, we heard that mainstream schools are far less likely to offer similar opportunities. This is often due to a curriculum that is unable to cater for a wide variety of skills and interests.” The report said some mainstream school leaders “focused more on meeting school accountability measures when developing their curriculum offer for children and …

Accountability can’t rely on our current progress measures

Accountability can’t rely on our current progress measures

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles Last week’s EPI report about this year’s GCSE results revealed a deep and continuing disadvantage gaps, underscoring the importance of addressing inequalities in education. But are we really able to do so with our current blunt measures of school effectiveness? Published last week, the Northern Powerhouse Partnership’s Fairer Schools Index (FSI) raised questions about the usefulness and dangers of using school-level data, notably Progress 8 (P8). P8 compares a student’s progress across eight qualifications from the end of key stage 2 to the end of key stage 4 against other students with similar starting points. Since its introduction in 2016, various governments have considered this approach to be fair because it is believed to encourage all schools to achieve the highest outcomes. Unfortunately, as FSI makes clear, the P8 measure is flawed. Because it has no regard for contextual factors, it favours schools serving the least disadvantaged areas and disfavours those that are achieving notable improvements in student outcomes for the most disadvantaged communities. Some schools do achieve amazing …

How to make school accountability fit for a changing world

How to make school accountability fit for a changing world

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles Last month we joined a number of Forum Strategy’s members for the first of three autumn roundtables chaired by Baroness Estelle Morris. Our focus was on the current landscape for accountability, and we tackled four big questions.  What key guiding principles should underpin the accountability system? What might a new balanced scorecard potentially look like? What considerations should underpin the inspection of multi-academy trusts? And what can trusts do to further generate a culture of local, formative accountability to communities that acts as a balance to the more summative national models? There were, of course, a range of views on all these questions, but it is nevertheless possible to give an overall sense of where consensus lies and where questions remain. For starters, the group recognised the importance of a fit-for-purpose inspectorate. Much good has come from inspections over forty years ago, but it has also raised challenges. The group broadly welcomed some of the government’s ‘quick fix’ changes to inspection in recent months as well as, in principle, the …

Conflict questions as Labour moves to single regulator

Conflict questions as Labour moves to single regulator

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More from this theme Recent articles Ministers face questions about how they will maintain independent financial oversight of academies after announcing they will close the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and beef up the role of powerful regional directors. The government announced this week that the ESFA will be “integrated into the core Department for Education” by March next year. The two-stage move will give schools a “single point of contact for financial management and support”, the government said. But the announcement has prompted concerns that regional directors could be overly influenced by ministers. For instance, regional directors were tasked with growing the academy agenda, while the ESFA was tasked with independently investigating cases of financial mismanagement in schools. Scrapping ESFA ‘bad news for transparency’ One former ESFA official, who wanted to remain anonymous, said it was “bad news for transparency and fairness in education”.  “The ESFA was a key, rational bulwark against the cronyism of regional directors. This government stripping away of the checks and balances of executive agencies does nothing for pupils.” …

Pause in Ofsted SEND inspections ‘opens accountability gap’

Pause in Ofsted SEND inspections ‘opens accountability gap’

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More from this theme Recent articles Ministers have been warned that suspending monitoring visits for areas that failed special educational needs and disabilities inspections should “set off alarm bells” as it “opens up an accountability gap”. As part of its Big Listen response, Ofsted announced it would review area SEND inspections “to enable local areas to enhance the support they offer”.  Alongside the Care Quality Commission, the inspectorates look at how well services work together to improve experiences and outcomes for children with additional needs. While full inspections will continue, Ofsted will “hold off” monitoring inspections until the review is completed. No timescale has been given.  Areas found to have “widespread and/or system concerns” should usually have a monitoring inspection within about 18 months. The first three under a new framework rolled out last year were due to take place before the end of the year. Anne Longfield, the chair of think tank Centre for Young Lives, said anything that created a gap in accountability “must be something that sets off alarm bells out to …

Progress 8 must give way to more constructive accountability

Progress 8 must give way to more constructive accountability

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles School accountability will always pose problems. It’s impossible to have a system that can’t be manipulated, but it is possible to design one that limits cynical practices. Sadly, our headline measures incentivise precisely such practices. And coupled with an inspection system fraught with issues around subjectivity and reliability, you begin to see why so many who join the profession with excitement fall out of love with it so quickly. If we are brutally honest, attainment trumps progress in the eyes of most parents; they want to know the proportions passing English and maths as a proxy for quality. Very few take any interest in Attainment 8, and while more look at Progress 8 (P8), too many don’t properly understand it. This alone calls into question its utility. P8 was Michael Gove’s attempt to force schools into adopting the ‘academic’ curriculum he preferred. In truth, it is easily manipulated by some, while others are held to ransom by it. In October 2023, I ran P8 though our AI tool in …

School accountability musn’t go back to business as usual

School accountability musn’t go back to business as usual

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles The start of a new academic year is always a time for hope and optimism – a time for fresh starts.This year, with news that overarching Ofsted grades are scrapped with immediate effect, that is true not just in school but also within the wider education policy context. This decision is undoubtedly an important step forward, and the government deserves much credit for taking bold, early action. From now on, schools cannot and should not be described by anyone using simplistic, one-word terms. This should apply not just to schools inspected this year, but also to those inspected previously. The profession itself has an important role to play here: the effect will be undermined if we continue to erect banners or use letterheads proclaiming this to be ‘a good school’. We need to move on. Now is the time for everyone to ditch the use of such reductive labels, whether good or bad. Some may feel this change doesn’t go far enough and argue that sub-grades should also be …

University leaders face calls for accountability after crackdowns on pro-Palestinian encampments

University leaders face calls for accountability after crackdowns on pro-Palestinian encampments

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Pro-Palestinian activists have launched encampments at more than 70 campuses to bring attention to Israel’s monthslong military assault on the Gaza Strip and to demand that schools divest from companies doing business with the country. The nationwide movement has led to clashes with police and more than 2,300 protesters being arrested in the past few weeks, according to an NBC News tally. Now, as many students face legal and disciplinary action and universities are reassessing commencement plans, school communities are expressing frustration with administrators’ management of campus protests. On Wednesday, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters formed an encampment at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus in New York City. The school called on the New York Police Department to assist, and police arrested 15 protesters. In a statement addressed to the school community released later that evening, Fordham President Tania Tetlow characterized the encampment inside the Leon Lowenstein academic building and the protest directly outside as “different” from previously held events on the college campus, and added that “hundreds of protesters came from elsewhere.” “We draw …

Labour’s accountability solutions are just more of the same

Labour’s accountability solutions are just more of the same

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More from this theme Recent articles Last month, the UN issued a global alert over teacher shortages. We are apparently in need of 44 million teachers by 2030, and we’re at dire risk of missing that target. England is practically a case study in the problem, with a report from the NFER this month warning that teachers need to be compensated for lack of certain flexibilities, like working from home, to slow the record number of them leaving the profession. The impact on children is real. A report this month showed children in the western world are becoming increasingly unhappy and are “really struggling”. Parents and families also keep raising the alarm about the same issue. What is going on? As an educational psychologist who has spent a decade working in schools, pupil referral units and child prisons, following children from the moment they enter schools to when they leave, a big part of my answer is: culture. More specifically, a culture of hyper-surveillance. First off, there are deep contradictions in the way schools are …