Curriculum and Standards

Introduction

There is a vast range of official information about standards. This short article can serve only as a very brief introductory tour. It focuses on standards in GCSE results for 15/16 year olds and on two main topics within that: national standards and performance, and local league tables and “value added” pilots. It does not cover at any length standards in test results at other ages and it does not cover at all standards in teaching, for which a good starting point is the HM Chief Inspector of Schools’ Annual Report (http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/ofsted/hc102/102.htm).

National Standards and Performance

National Learning Targets for England for 2002 (see http://www.dfee.gov.uk/nlt/targets.htm) were launched in October 1998. They aim to provide a focus for raising attainment and participation in education and training for the key stages of people's lives at ages of 11, 16, 19, 21 and on into adulthood. The eleven targets include:

• 80% of 11-year-olds reaching the expected standard (level 4 or above) for their age in literacy and 75% reaching the standard in numeracy.
• 95% of 16-year-olds getting at least 1 GCSE and 50% getting 5 GCSEs at A*-C
• 85% of 19-year-olds with 5+ GCSEs at A*-C or equivalent and 60% of 21-year-olds with 2 GCE A Levels or equivalent
• 50% of adults with 2 GCE A Levels or equivalent, 28% with a degree or equivalent

Official statistics show progress against these targets, as well as showing how performance varies by gender, ethnic group and so on. The January 2001 Statistical First Release (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/statistics/DB/SFR/s0230/index.html) provides summary findings of the most recent survey of 16 year olds from the Youth Cohort Study. It shows for example that overall attainment of 5 or more GCSEs at grades A*-C or the GNVQ equivalent continued to rise between 1998 and 2000, with 49 per cent of 16 year olds achieving 5 or more GCSEs A*-C in 2000. The proportion of girls achieving 5 or more GCSEs at grades A*-C (or GNVQ equivalent) rose from 51 per cent in 1998 to 54 per cent in 2000. Although the proportion of boys achieving 5 or more GCSEs A*-C (or GNVQ equivalent) also rose (from 42 per cent in 1998 to 44 per cent in 2000), achievement of girls remained well above that for boys.

All ethnic groups saw a rise in the achievement of 5 or more GCSEs A*-C (or GNVQ equivalent), with the exception of Bangladeshi 16 year olds. There were marked increases in achievement of 5 or more GCSEs A*-C (or GNVQ equiv) for Black, Indian, and Other Asian young people (increases from 29 per cent to 37 per cent, 54 per cent to 62 per cent, and 61 per cent to 70 per cent respectively). However, the fall in achievement amongst Bangladeshi young people from 33 per cent in 1998 to 30 per cent in 2000) and the very small rise in achievement amongst Pakistani young people (from 29 per cent to 30 per cent) meant that the gap between the highest and lowest achieving ethnic groups widened between 1998 and 2000.

Looking at how the UK performs on an international stage, at http://www.dfee.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2000_0565 the DfEE report that an international study of the educational successes of 14 year olds shows that English youngsters were 9th in a list of 38 countries in their achievements in science in 1999 and 20th in the list of 38 for mathematics. The last study was carried out in 1995 when English youngsters came 25th out of 41. The research carried out, in England, by the National Foundation for Educational Research, also showed that English science standards are on a par with Japan, Singapore, the Netherlands, Hungary, Australia, Belgium (Flemish) and Canada and significantly higher than the USA, New Zealand and Italy.

Local performance “League Tables” and “Value Added” pilots

Perhaps the best known performance statistics are the “league tables” published each year showing GCSE and A level results for secondary schools across the country. The title is somewhat misleading, as the performance statistics published at http://www.dfee.gov.uk/performance/ are not ranked, but the media commonly produce ranked versions showing “best and worst performing” schools.

The tables provide basic information on examination performance (though not on other aspects of school performance such as pastoral care) but are not easy to interpret. There are two main criticisms raised about interpreting the league tables. Firstly, that they are “output” tables and do not make any allowance for the effect on results of “input” differences such as the ability range of pupils (particularly differences between selective and non-selective schools) or of other factors that may have an educational impact, such as type of locality (e.g. inner-city compared with leafy suburb). Secondly, that they do not show how much, in comparison with the national average, a school has added to pupils’ performance as they move from one key stage to the next. (Such criticisms have recently led Northern Ireland to abandon publishing league table information.)

There is much debate about methods of measuring pupil progress and the "value added" by schools and colleges. The DfEE has carried out two pilots on measuring and reporting value added in school and college performance tables. The first was in 1998, for pupils between the ages of 14 and 16 and the other was in 2000, for students between the ages of 16 and 18. The latter measures the progress students made between GCSE/GNVQ and GCE A/AS and Advanced GNVQ in 2000 on the basis of individual students' performance for a sample of schools and colleges (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/statistics/DB/PER/p0215/index.html).

Value added information about the progress of pupils nationally is published in the annual Autumn Package of Pupil Performance Information (http://www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/performance/). This shows the distribution of pupil outcomes at the end of each key stage, for pupils with similar achievement at the end of the previous key stage. Schools are encouraged to use the Autumn Package to evaluate the progress made by their own pupils, compared to national patterns.

To help school teachers and governors (no mention of parents!) interpret performance statistics the DfEE performance “autumn pack” - unlike the better known “league tables” - separates results for comprehensive, grammar and secondary modern schools. These and other official statistics show just how important it is to compare like with like when making comparisons between schools. In a somewhat similar way that the best single predictor of tomorrow’s weather is today’s weather, the best predictor by far of a pupil’s ultimate performance is their prior attainment. So the ability range of its intake is a key factor to consider in looking at the performance of a school. For example, grammar schools typically select the top 25% of the ability range, so it is important to look at a similar ability group in comprehensive schools in comparisons between the two types of school. DfEE published statistics on this in Hansard last year (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmhansrd/vo000525/text/00525w11.html_sbhd0).

The results were from an analysis carried out by the DfEE Analytical Services using the data collected for the secondary school performance tables published in November 1999 and based on the results of all 15 year old pupils in grammar schools and the top 25% of pupils in comprehensive schools:

Socio-economic factors can clearly have an effect on school performance. The DfEE performance “autumn pack” notes that the proportion of children eligible for free school meals (FSMs) is more strongly correlated with performance than any other contextual variable. (Which makes it both odd and unfortunate that the “league tables” do not include this variable). It therefore shows performance results at key stages separately for schools with different ranges of proportions of children eligible for FSMs. These show, for instance, that in year 2000 schools with up to 8% of children eligible for FSMs the median percentage of pupils achieving level 3 at Key Stage 1 for maths was 30%, whereas for schools with more than 50% eligible for FSMs it was only 14%. Similarly, (see http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmhansrd/vo000321/text/00321w12.html_sbhd5), the proportions of pupils "known to be eligible for free school meals" averaged over the 200 maintained, mainstream secondary schools with the highest, and lowest, percentages of 15 year old pupils achieving five or more GCSE/GNVQ grades A*-C in 1999 were 3% and 42% respectively.

Similarly schools with a high proportion of pupils with Special Educational Needs tend to obtain lower proportions of good GCSE grades, as shown by the chart below for schools in one illustrative region in England.

(Click on the chart for a full size version)

The figures for producing this chart were drawn from http://www.dfee.gov.uk/performance/schools_00.htm (The DfEE website http://www.dfee.gov.uk/performance, is a very convenient source of quite detailed performance figures for individual schools, including trends in their performance over recent years. It covers primary, secondary and further education. It can be searched by institution, LEA or even for all schools within a given radius of any postcode! Another useful source on standards in individual schools is the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) http://www.ofsted.gov.uk where school inspection reports can be found).