State of Education Report 2017 state-of-education-booklet-Final-WEB | Page 16

A time of sweeping change Reflecting on the changes to accountability measures
In terms of core education provision, the last two years have brought The majority of school leaders (66%) do not think that the new
significant changes for school leaders to manage in both primary and accountability measures are a fair and accurate way to measure school
secondary settings. performance, although perspectives vary by phase.
Primary schools have grappled with a new National Curriculum and the “The current accountability measures are a fair and
accurate way to measure school performance.”
introduction of new statutory assessments for grammar, punctuation
and spelling alongside reading and mathematics. Reforms to GCSEs
mean that secondary schools are working with revised subject content,
a reduction in non-exam assessments and a new grading scale.
scaled scores and floor standards at primary level and the progress
Primary
Strongly agree
Secondary
approach to dealing with underperformance. The introduction of
4%
%
38 %
greater emphasis on value-added measures, and a more interventionist
0%
established attainment standards have fallen away to be replaced by a
11%
Across the board, reforms to accountability measures mean that long-
2%
1%
5%
18
Tend to agree
Neither agree nor disagree
Tend to disagree
Strongly disagree
Don’t know
8, attainment 8 and English
Baccalaureate (EBacc)
performance measures for
secondary schools – combined
with the ‘coasting’ measure –
has meant yet more change to
manage, and more pressure as
our survey findings suggest,
“There is no
let up in the
measures used
to judge schools”
Secondary school leader
for our schools.
STATE OF EDUCATION 2017 | WWW.STATEOFED.THEKEYSUPPORT.COM
Frustrations are more marked among primary school leaders, with
seven in 10 (70%) disagreeing that the measures are fair and accurate.
This discontent is unsurprising following the controversy around Key
Stage (KS) 2 writing assessment and moderation in summer 2016 18 and
the potential implications of ‘coasting’ school status if too few pupils
do not meet the expected standard. In 2016, 477 schools 19 met the
definition of coasting at KS2.
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