League tables

League tables are a good starting point for creating a shortlist of schools, but unfortunately a school can appear in a different position in different tables, or might not appear at all despite good results.

Tables everywhere else, such as football leagues or music charts, are based on one criterion because this is the only one that matters to those looking at the listings. If your team scores more goals or an artist sells more singles, then they go up. If they don’t, then they go down. Simple enough, but if we are going to measure schools we have to decide on how we will position them, and this is where the whole matter gets complicated.

Exam results are the obvious, measurable output of schools. GCSE passes from A* to C including English and mathematics is the standard measurement across the country. The official tables contain information on just over 4,000 schools, and the figures for this year tell a predictable tale. Poorer schools are struggling to meet even the basic target of five passes; only half of the UK’s 16 year olds achieved five or more GCSEs at A*–C and girls outperformed boys again. However, at the upper end, the tables are not so helpful and there is growing evidence that the best GCSE candidates are not being given the chance to excel because of the exam league tables. The Association of School and College Leaders now argues that the focus on the percentage of pupils obtaining five A* to C grades means schools put less emphasis on stretching the brightest pupils. Instead, many schools are focused on helping borderline C or D-grade pupils to make sure they achieve a C-grade pass, at the cost of pushing on the higher achievers.

Matters are complicated further as some schools may offer good qualifications that do not even appear on a table. These might include GCSE equivalents, such as BTEC First Diplomas, and National Vocational Qualifications and IGCSEs (International General Certificates in Education). IGCSEs are increasingly popular in some independent schools but in the past have not been recognised by the Government’s Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). Things are changing and, from September 2010, state school heads have been allowed to offer the IGCSE syllabus in subjects including English, maths and science, so they should be allowed in league tables in due course. Good news, it seems – however, the move to recognise the IGCSE (which is likened by some to the old-style O-level) is seen by some as an indication that the standard GCSE is no longer seen as fit for purpose. As ever, politics and education mingle and families can end up confused.

The A-level league tables are no more straightforward. All local authorities in England publish the passes from each school at A-level, but this is not so in Scotland or Wales, and the table does not include private schools or passes in the increasingly popular International Baccalaureate (IB), now taught in over 200 independent schools. The IB requires detailed academic study of a wide range of subjects, including languages, the arts, science, maths, history and geography, and leads to a single qualification. It is also highly regarded as a sixth-form qualification by university admissions departments, but it does not appear in any tables alongside A-levels. The even newer Pre-U examination is also growing in popularity as an alternative to A-levels, but it too has no place in league tables.

Issues to do with A-levels took a new and possibly confusing turn with the introduction of the A* grade in summer 2010. Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation, says that the A* grade is to be awarded to ‘learners who have consistently performed very well throughout their A-level units and outstandingly on the A2 units’. In reality this means getting 90% or above in all upper-sixth A2 exams and, in the summer, independent school pupils were three times as likely to gain A* grades as children from state comprehensives. Almost 18% of exams that were sat in the private sector were awarded an A*, compared with under 6% of those in comprehensives and 5.5% in sixth-form and further education colleges. Although most universities are refusing to accept the A* as part of admissions this year, it is expected to be employed by more institutions in 2011 to help choose between exceptional and average candidates. As to whether the league tables will reflect this, only time will tell. Officials will have to decide if they want the stark split between state and private results to be highlighted in their figures.

League tables in their many, various manifestations published by government or the national media will give families some information about schools and the state of education at that time. They are useful, but a simplistic way of describing a whole school. They are best used as one of a series of factors making up a decision and the only certainty is that they will always change.

 

Using league tables

• Consider how the school has performed over a longer period – perhaps five years.
• Read carefully about the way the table has been created and how each school is positioned (which examinations are included and which excluded).
• Find out if the school you are interested in has decided to remove itself from a table. Some highly respected and high-achieving independent schools refuse to provide data for tables for a variety of reasons.
• Find out if the school is selective on entry. These schools should have a higher position than those that are non-selective.
• Find out if the school is a specialist school (such as a music school), where the pupils may take fewer subjects.
• Find out the school’s admission policy for children who have learning difficulties. This too may have some impact on its position in the table.
• Bear in mind that just because the school may have a high position in a table this is only an indicator of current performance and your children may not sit the exams in the A-level table for another seven years.
• Find out what is provided in the extra-curricular programme. These additional skills are vital in an all-round education, and may be more important in terms of happiness (and open up a pathway to higher achievement for a child) than the academic prowess of the school. Increasingly universities are looking for more than just exam passes in a good UCAS application.