The Education Development Trust report on what might be learnt from 30 years of England’s approach to school performance data- The National Pupil Database.

The seven main points are called ‘lessons’. Here are the headlines for each lesson:

1.  The English school accountability system benefits from a data infrastructure of national tests and information about pupil characteristics, supported by technology.
2. The experience demonstrates the risks of an over-simplistic approach to school performance data.
3. There has been an important and lively debate about ‘value-added’ measures which take into account the starting points of pupils.
4. There is a need for a national accountability system that evolves over time.
5. Accountability measures have played a significant role in the development of school self-evaluation.
6. There is benefit from comparing their own students’ performance with that of the national database through item-level analysis.
7. There should be an alignment between data-based support for internal school improvement and external school improvement through inspection.

They are keen on this approach, stating (p11):

“The national data set in England now includes information about tens of millions of current and former school pupils”. This is an impressive database.

Interesting comments such as (p15) :

“The data system has enabled successive governments to drive an agenda of national reform and to attempt to improve teaching and learning,” can fuel debate and probably cause a level of argument.

The authors state some shortcomings (p20 ):

“The notion of a single indicator, or a very small group of indicators, able to provide the basis for an overall judgement of school quality may have some attractions to policymakers, but schools are complex organisations and good schools must ensure multiple outcomes. School performance needs to be measured using multiple dimensions and this requires different types of indicators.”

                            If you’d like to see the full report, it’s here.

Photo by Sai Kiran Anagani on Unsplash

 

The  Youth Sport Trust report PE Provision In Secondary Schools 2018 states data to support their stance.

 

The detail is worth considering but the causes of a decrease in PE timetabling is not surprising:

• Exam pressure
• Additional curriculum time for other subjects  e.g.core/
  eBacc
• Staffing cuts

It is noted that PE teachers  feel strongly that the subject needs to be more valued amongst school leaders, parents, wider stakeholders and importantly young people.

Although a secondary school focus  report it states that only 22% of children aged 5 to 15 in England meet the Chief Medical Officer’s recommended 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous activity.