Ofsted’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman has insisted that the watchdog’s refusal to look at school’s internal data will not mean schools are penalised for their old results.
She has defended plans for Ofsted to no longer use school’s own attainment and progress data in its new framework after criticism from the two major headteachers’ unions.
Ofsted is proposing to no longer use this data because of concerns that it drives teacher workload and cannot be relied upon on inspection.
However, this plan has proved to be controversial with both the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and the NAHT headteachers’ union criticising it in their responses to Ofsted’s consultation for its new inspections.
Quick read: 24 slides which set out Ofsted’s plans
Need to know: The new inspection framework
Background: Ofsted won’t look at internal data
ASCL suggested it would prevent schools being able to provide evidence of improvement while the NAHT has said it would increase the reliance on older published exam and test results.
An NAHT poll also showed that 86 per cent of members opposed the idea of Ofsted not looking at internal data.
However, Ms Spielman has said Ofsted will not be more reliant on old results under its new regime which will place more emphasis on the overall quality of education a school provides rather than exam scores.
In a speech during a visit to three schools in the North Yorkshire coast Opportunity Area, she said: “I know that there are some concerns about our proposal to stop using schools’ internal attainment and progress data as evidence during inspections.
“There are some who feel this will place more weight on historic results. This really isn’t right.
“Remember, we are proposing to take out the outcomes judgement, so that historic performance data will already carry less weight.
“If your previous results were disappointing, but you’ve already started to make your curriculum more coherent, to increase your teachers’ subject knowledge, and to assess and refine your curriculum and teaching as you go, that may be more important than what happened a year ago.”
She said schools can still collect and use assessment information but added: “this should be done in a way that has real value to you as teachers and leaders, and not to satisfy Ofsted.”
In ASCL’s response to Ofsted’s consultation, the union said it had said it strongly disagreed with the proposal to refuse to look at a school’s internal progress and attainment data.
“While we support efforts to reduce the amount of data collection carried out in schools, Ofsted’s proposal goes too far, and would prevent schools being able to provide evidence of improvement,” it added.
The NAHT response said: “Adopting a policy position where Ofsted refuses to consider a school’s internal monitoring data repeats previous errors. It risks driving an increase in the priority and focus on external data...incentivising schools to teach to the test, and attaching a greater significance to these tests than they deserve.”
Ofsted’s new inspection framework aims to give greater weight to the quality of a school’s curriculum and less weight to the exam results it achieves.
It is proposing to create a new quality of education judgement and is removing the separate inspection grades for teaching and learning and pupils’ outcomes.
The quality of education will take results, teaching and learning and the school curriculum into account.
Ms Spielman said in her speech yesterday that Ofsted research had shown that there was not any clear link between the deprivation levels of a school’s community and a school’s curriculum quality.
She added: “This suggests that removing the very data-driven outcomes judgement and emphasising the overall quality of education will help us to reward schools in challenging circumstances that are raising standards through strong curricula, with real equity.”
