On school league tables
January 27, 2012 Leave a Comment
Education in the Borough of Southend-on-Sea is not in a good way. We have some excellent schools; we also have had schools in special measures. The story, it seems, is of extremes.
My views on selective education and faith schools are well known. I believe these are ultimately detrimental to the education of our young. I also believe the polarisation evidenced in Southend can be linked to this.
Another factor is league tables, and new ones have been issued this week. Parents will be using these to work out which school to send their children to – a perfectly understandable action. The trouble is, even those schools at the bottom of the pile will still have students. The ‘better’ schools will either have selection as an admission policy, or will indirectly select by wealth as their catchment areas become ‘sought-after’ in property terms.
In other words, money can either buy you the tutoring for your children, or a home in the right area. Either way, it favours those with money.
I think testing and the monitoring of test results is a good thing. One wants to know that one’s school is trying to improve, and certainly not sliding downwards in terms of achievement. What is wrong is that rather than performance being used to encourage the school to do better it is being used as a stick to beat the school and encourage the sharp-elbowed with deep pockets to look elsewhere. The end result is unlikely to see the struggling schools do anything but continue to struggle.
The NASUWT is not impressed by the publication of this data either.
