Responding to Ofsted Big Listen, Natalie Perera, Chief Executive,
Education Policy Institute (EPI), said:
“Ofsted's response to its Big Listen and the earlier announcement
of the ending of one-word judgements are both positive steps
towards reforming a school accountability system that has made
leadership of some of the most challenging schools even more
difficult.
“The current accountability system creates perverse incentives,
which can often include narrowing of the curriculum, reducing the
inclusiveness of admissions practices, and removing pupils from
school rolls. Ofsted's plans to introduce a new focus on
inclusion in its criteria for inspection has the potential to
help counter these effects and make the school system work
better, particularly for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds or
with special educational needs.
“We welcome Ofsted's focus on vulnerable learners and pupils from
disadvantaged backgrounds and look forward to their proposals for
how that will be reflected in the inspection framework and the
training of inspectors. Under the current system, schools with
low levels of disadvantage and high prior attainment have been
more likely to receive positive judgements from Ofsted. Our own
research shows that when schools consistently receive ratings
that are less than good it is associated with an increase in
teacher turnover, and an increasingly disadvantaged intake, both
of which make it more difficult to reverse the negative
judgement.
“More broadly, it is right that the Department for Education and
Ofsted are reevaluating how school performance is measured. Our
own benchmarking tool for multi-academy trusts and local
authorities, which includes measures of attainment, progress,
inclusion, the school workforce, and school finances could
provide a blueprint for the new school report card.”
