National standards will enable league tables for primary schools

League tables comparing primary schools' performance will be possible once the new national standards for primary and middle schools are rolled out next year, says education minister Anne Tolley.

Mrs Tolley has stopped short of committing the government to producing the league tables, but she has said once the data was collated on schools' performance there was nothing to stop people from producing league tables that rank schools.

"Personally, I think the more information that is out there the better … If you’re going to put extra funding into a school, you want to know that it's being used well and the school is making progress with the number of students that are below the standard … the best disinfectant is fresh air," Mrs Tolley was reported saying in the Press.

The six-week consultation phase on the proposed national standards regime runs from May 25 to July 3 in regions around the country. It will look at what the national standards would be, but also who could access the information once it was collated.

When announcing the consultation phase, Mrs Tolley said national standards (to be in place from 2010) would set clear expectations about what students should be able to achieve in literacy and numeracy and by when.

"Students' performance against these standards will be reported to parents in plain language.

"Parents want to know how well their children are doing and what they can expect when extra help is needed. This policy is about using existing assessment tools to provide feedback that supports student learning and teacher effectiveness.

"Consultation will establish who needs access to what information. Can I say again, there will be no single national test," she said.

Mrs Tolley said the national standards would be used by all English and Maori-medium primary and intermediate schools from 2010. Assessment would show where each child sits against the standard and what progress they have made.

Final decisions would be made after consultation. Teachers and schools would use a mix of the assessment tools they are already using. These may include asTTle, PAT, STAR, portfolios and exemplars.

The Education Forum believes league type tables should be produced for all levels of schooling. The forum says league tables make school’s achievement more transparent.

They also help parents know how well their children are achieving in comparison with children in other schools and against national standards – and whether their school's particular programmes are effective.

League tables are produced by the UK government for schools in England, and give information on the achievements of pupils in local primary schools, how they compare with other schools in the local authority area, and in England as a whole.

The league tables for English schools show:

• background information on each school
• results from the 'Key Stage' tests, taken in English, mathematics and science
• scores measuring the progress made by pupils. This takes into account the varying starting points of each pupil, and also adjusts for factors that are outside a school’s control (such as gender, mobility and levels of deprivation).

The tables also indicate the rates of pupil absence from school, showing the percentage of overall absence and the percentage of persistent absence for each mainstream maintained school.

Resources

Articles in the Press on the topic are at this web page and this web page.

See these links for more information on league tables in England:

• The Department for Children, Schools and Families
• The Guardian's education section

See education minister Anne Tolley's press statement about consultation on the proposed national standards regime at this web page.

For more information on assessment in New Zealand schools, visit this web page.