How new Ofsted report cards could be improved – by giving parents what they want to know
Change is underway at Ofsted, England’s schools inspectorate. Headline judgments that summed up a whole school in one or two words have been discarded in favour of a proposed report card system that promises to offer a more rounded assessment of school quality.
According to education secretary Bridget Phillipson, the changes are supposed to make the system less high stakes for schools while giving parents more information. The proposed report cards give a score on a five point scale for a range of areas, including wellbeing and inclusion, among others.
The evidence that Ofsted’s previous approach was problematic had been stacking up for some years. My four-year study with colleague Rob Higham showed how inspections were driving a culture of compliance and standardisation in schools. They were incentivising leaders to prioritise the interests of the school over the interests of particular groups of, usually more vulnerable, children.
So far, responses from the teaching profession to the new report card proposals have not been positive. The Association of School and College Leaders’ says they will be “bewildering for teachers and leaders, never mind the parents whose choices these reports are supposedly intended to guide”, and retain the high-stakes aspects of the previous system.
A poll of more than 3000 school leaders by headteachers’ union the NAHT indicates that nine in ten disagree with the plans.
My recent research suggests the need for a different approach which prioritises local accountability, in particular to parents. Over the past three years, my colleague Susan Cousin and I have been working on a project evaluating how professionals in different local areas can work together to address placed based challenges in education.
One of these challenges was how to strengthen professional accountability. The aim was for school staff to take greater collective ownership of what school “quality” looks like and how it could be improved, rather than waiting for Ofsted to tell them.
In two areas, Sheffield and Milton Keynes, school-led partnerships – membership organisations which support collaboration between schools – decided to develop their own local school “report cards”. These were intended to offer a broad and balanced set of information for parents, governors and others.
In both areas a core design group was brought together. This involved leaders from a diverse range of local primary and secondary schools and academy trusts who agreed a draft format for the report cards.
These prototypes were then taken out to consultation with wider schools as well as parents and carers. Based on their feedback, the report cards were adjusted before final versions were agreed. Each area developed different versions for primary, secondary and special schools.
What parents want
The most transformative aspect of the process arguably came from the consultations with parents and carers. For example, in the development of the Sheffield report card, it became clear that as well as information on the school from external sources – including Ofsted reports – parents wanted to learn more about what the school was really like. This led to the inclusion of a “get to know this school” section of the report card. The project lead in Sheffield explained to us:
What came through really clearly … [from parents and carers] was, “I want a feel of the school” … They want the quality assured stuff. But they also want a feel of the place. And that’s why in the second iteration, what we’ve got is a whole section, which is an ability for the school to show itself – photos, videos, talk about particular aspects of education, and what’s unique about their school in relation to curriculum.
The latest version of the report card developed by the Sheffield project.
Another feature that parents wanted included was a way of understanding what other parents and students themselves think about each school. In response, both Sheffield and Milton Keynes have included sections that show the “top five positives” according to parents and carers, and “five words from children about this school”.
Strengthening local accountability
England’s school system has become increasingly centralised in recent decades. The role and capacity of local authorities has been reduced and national requirements and oversight, including from Ofsted, have increased.
In the process, school leaders and staff have become disempowered, while parents and local communities have largely lost their ability to influence the quality and direction of local schools. Locally developed school reports offer a way to redress the balance.
This approach would not remove national accountability. In both Sheffield and Milton Keynes the plan is to incorporate national data, including from Ofsted inspections, into the local reports.
But encouraging local ownership and strengthening the voice of parents and children in terms of how school quality is assessed and reported, could help schools become more accountable to the people most invested in them, rather than the national government. Läs mer…