Today, school leaders’ union NAHT and the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) each publish reports on England’s accountability system.
Both reports offer insights into the twenty-five-year history of performance tables and school inspection and valuable contributions to the current debate about their future. They will be published simultaneously at a launch event at the Wellcome Trust in London on Friday 14 September.
NFER’s literature review, ‘What Impact Does Accountability Have on Curriculum, Standards and Engagement in Education?’, identifies and evaluates research evidence on the impact of different types of accountability systems. The timing of the study was designed to coincide with NAHT’s Accountability Commission, and to provide objective evidence for policy makers.
Carole Willis, Chief Executive of the National Foundation for Educational Research, said: “Overall, our review demonstrates that there are pros and cons in all accountability systems, including those in high performing countries. Different elements of accountability need to complement each other in order to minimise unintended consequences, and consideration given to how professional accountability can play a greater role in school improvement.
“Transparent information on school and pupil performance can be used to improve education and to provide information to parents and the wider public. But, as the NAHT’s report demonstrates, it is essential that there is a level playing field where performance is judged fairly, and there is a focus on doing what is right for all pupils to succeed”.
Nick Brook, NAHT’s deputy general secretary and the Chair of the association’s Commission on Accountability, will say: “The way in which schools are being held to account is, on balance, doing more harm than good. NAHT’s Accountability Commission is intended to be a constructive contribution, to start a debate that is urgently needed on the future of school accountability.
“It cannot be right that teachers and leaders are put off working in schools in challenging areas because they simply do not believe that the inspection system will treat them fairly for doing so. Fear of accountability has fundamentally changed how many leaders lead their schools, created workload and encouraged defensive behaviours, that are more to do with being ‘inspection ready’ than improving the learning of pupils. The recommendations outlined in this report would reduce and eradicate many of the negative impacts associated with current arrangements and help raise educational standards further across all schools.”
Andreas Schleicher, Director for the Directorate of Education and Skills at the OECD, contributed to NAHT’s report and said: “These reports identify the importance of strengthening lateral accountability in the English system. This is a feature of many of the highest performing international jurisdictions, where accountability is vested at a more local level and reputational metrics mean that great teachers are attracted to the toughest schools.
“In such systems teachers themselves are often their severest critics – a managed transition away from a top-down system based on compliance and intervention, to one where the profession takes much greater ownership and responsibility for the quality of the curriculum and pupils’ learning is potentially transformative.”
The full NFER report can be downloaded here. The full NAHT report will be available to download from their website at 09:30am.
For further information please contact: Jane Parrack 01753 637245, Sundip Gill 01753 637218 or Cat Finlayson 01753 637439