Head teachers slam 'spurious' league tables

Head teachers associations have criticised the publication of the first set of national league tables of the key stage 3 tests results.

The general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association (SHA) slammed the league tables as "flawed, misleading and unnecessary".

Commenting on the publication, Dr John Dunford, SHA General Secretary, said: "The league tables present a spurious rank order of schools, when the statistics on which they are based cannot sustain such detailed comparisons."

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) also spoke out against the league tables, saying that the Key stage 3 tests were "no more than a staging post on the way to the more important GCSE, A level and vocational examinations at 16 and beyond".

The association proposed that parents should be given national statistical comparisons, without putting the scores into the form of league tables, which "shed very little light on the true performance of schools".

A spokesperson said: "When will the government learn that introducing misleading performance measures will not improve standards? The value added model used by the Department for Education and Skills is flawed in its attempt to compare performance at 11 with performance at 14.”

However, School Standards Minister David Miliband said today that the publication of a "value added measure" for every school’s progress for pupils aged 14 illustrated the "excellent progress" made by many schools.

Mr Miliband said: “The early years in secondary school are crucial. But they have long been the years when many pupils have drifted. It is very encouraging that our strategy to deal with this is beginning to deliver results. These are the best results we have ever had at 14.

“The results published today demonstrate the outstanding results that can be achieved by schools –some of which face challenging circumstances."

The results showed that proportion of children achieving the expected level in maths is up by 4 percentage points from last year to 71% - results in English is up 2 percentage points to 69% and science results are up 1 percentage point to 68%.

"These improvements mean an extra 24,000 pupils have dramatically improved their chances of success at GCSE and beyond," said Mr Miliband.

(gmcg)