Male Ofsted inspectors are more likely than females to give higher grades to similar primary schools, research shows.
The study also reveals that contracted Ofsted inspectors - who are often headteachers - were more likely to award a higher Ofsted grade than the inspectorate’s full-time HMIs.
The findings, released today in an academic working paper by the University of Southampton and University College London, relate to Ofsted grades awarded by 1,376 different inspectors across 35,751 school inspections between 2012 and 2019.
The authors warn that their findings suggest that Ofsted judgements can be affected by something as “arbitrary” as the gender of the inspection team.
They also suggest that this pattern may have since been exacerbated - amid concerns that the Education Inspection Framework introduced in September 2019 leads to more subjective judgements.
The researchers found that male lead inspectors rated around a third (33.1 per cent) of primary schools as “requires improvement” or “inadequate” between 2012 and 2019 - but this proportion rose to 36.4 per cent among female lead inspectors.
The gap was even more pronounced for “inadequate” grades: female lead inspectors were a third more likely to award an “inadequate” grade to a primary school than their male counterparts (5.9 per cent, compared with 4.5 per cent respectively).
Meanwhile, 58.7 per cent and 8.2 per cent of male inspectors handed out “good” and “outstanding” grades respectively, compared with 55.9 per cent and 7.8 per cent of females. The differences are statistically significant, the researchers note.
Factors influencing Ofsted school grades
To check whether this pattern simply reflected female inspectors visiting more low-performing schools, the researchers looked at grades across schools with the same prior Ofsted inspection rating, test results, levels of pupil absences and pupil intake, and schools in the same region of the country.
The study reveals that, even when comparing primary schools that are similar across all these characteristics, female inspectors are more likely to award a low Ofsted grade.
There were no clear differences in the grades awarded by male and female inspectors inspecting secondary schools.
Study co-author Dr Sam Sims, from the UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, said: “Given the high-stakes nature of school inspections for parents and teachers, with many parents using these school inspection grades to help choose a school for their children, one would hope that Ofsted grades accurately reflected the quality of schooling on offer.
“But our new research shows that characteristics of the lead inspector can influence the Ofsted grade awarded to a school - and it appears that even similar schools receive different grades based on something as arbitrary as the gender of the lead inspector.”
The report, Are some school inspectors more lenient than others?, is also written by Professor Christian Bokhove as well as Professor John Jerrim, who now works for Ofsted as an adviser. It is said to be the first piece of independent research worldwide into how school inspection outcomes are linked to individual characteristics of lead inspectors.
Are part-time Ofsted inspectors more generous?
The study also shows that freelance inspectors were more likely to award a higher Ofsted grade than inspectors employed on a permanent contract.
In total, 32 per cent of primary schools inspected by a freelance inspector received a low grade, compared with 44 per cent of primary schools inspected by those holding a permanent contract with Ofsted.
However, the authors note that those inspectors who hold a permanent contract with Ofsted are also more likely to be assigned to inspect lower-performing schools. They say this explains some - “although seemingly not all” - of this difference.
The study identifies no differences in the inspection grades awarded by inspectors with more or less experience, working inside or outside of their home region, or when inspecting schools within their primary/secondary school specialism.
Professor Bokhove, from the University of Southampton, said: “Many important decisions - driving tests, judicial sentencing, penalties in football matches - rely on human judgement.
“This inevitably leads to some inconsistency in the decisions made, with different individuals interpreting the evidence in different ways. As school inspections also involve human judgement, it is no surprise that their outcomes also depend in part on the characteristics of the inspectors assigned.”
The study team is now considering replicating its research with inspections carried out under the current Education Inspection Framework.
Ruth Maisey, programme head for education at the Nuffield Foundation, which supported this research, said: “The new inspection framework is arguably more subjective than its predecessor, placing more emphasis on how the curriculum is taught, rather than data. As a result, we might expect differences between inspectors to be greater. We would like to see Ofsted reflecting on these findings and seeking ways to improve the consistency of inspections.”
The authors of the report have called on Ofsted to publish details about how inspectors are deployed to different inspections.
They said: “This is important because if different inspectors award slightly different grades, we need to know which types of schools are likely to be disadvantaged by this.”
They also called on the inspectorate to provide the Office for National Statistics Secure Research Service with an inspection-inspector-linked dataset, to allow for further independent research into school inspections.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “Inspections are human judgements and not a tick-box exercise so there will always be a small unavoidable element of variability between inspectors.
“However, we are pleased that the research shows broadly that our inspectors reach consistent conclusions.”
Call for Ofsted to do more research
Dr Sims said the findings demonstrate the need for Ofsted to do more research into the reliability of inspections.
Posting on Twitter he said: “What should we take away from this simple analysis? Maybe the schools females are assigned to differ in other ways we can’t observe?
“Ideally, a test of Ofsted reliability would be to send two inspectors to the same school(s) and see if they agree.”
He highlighted how, in 2016, Ofsted did a small study of this type.
He added: “At the time, the chief inspector said this study was a first step, and there was more to be done.
“But six years later we had no further two-inspector-one-school studies. This is unfortunate because we are now in a position where school leaders will be (quite rationally) hoping for an inspector of a certain gender. Is that really sustainable?
“A good way to start modernising Ofsted, which would receive support across the political spectrum, would be for the secretary of state to require a new programme of research from Ofsted. In particular, we need large two-inspectors-one-school studies for each of the four Ofsted judgements.”
