Examination of Witnesses (Questions 107-119)
WEDNESDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2002
MR DAVID
TAYLOR, MISS
KATH CROSS,
MR TIM
KEY AND
MR MIKE
RALEIGH
Chairman
107. Can I welcome Tim Key, David Taylor, Mike
Raleigh and Kath Cross from Ofsted and say that we are always
pleased to see Ofsted. We are, as you know, having quite an intense
look at secondary education in a four part inquiry and this is
the first part in terms of diversity of provision. There is no
secret about the fact that we are trying to examine as closely
as we can the relationship between the current interests and passion
for diversity and whether that is linked and whether it is right
that that is linked to improvement of achievement in schools.
So, there is no mystery as to what we are up to here. We heard
a number of eminent professors of education last Wednesday, this
time last week, who rather poured some cold water on the belief
that there is a relationship between specialism, diversity and
improving achievement. So, one of the things we will be after
today is really finding out, both in terms of Ofsted and also
we will be asking two other eminent academics, their view on this.
Do Ofsted want to say anything to open the proceedings or do you
want to go straight into questions?
(Mr Taylor) We are happy for you to ask
questions.
108. Tell us what you think about this kind
of debate. You must read all the literature. You know that there
is some real difference between academics on the quality of the
data. Do Specialist Schools Add Value?, which is the title
of a paper by Ian Schagen and Harvey Goldstein. I know that we
are to have evidence later but there is no doubt that academics,
in their very polite way, are having quite a bitter discussion
about the meaning of the statistics and the interpretation of
the statistics. What is your take on this, Mr Taylor?
(Mr Taylor) Our take is essentially that inspection
data provides something different to put alongside this much contested
performance data and are not subject to the same interpretative
difficulties, though they may have other interpretative difficulties.
So what we tried to do in the papers which very late last night
we managed to get across to you after short notice was to explore
how different ways of categorising schools can be sorted in terms
of the key indices that inspectors use in reaching overall judgments
about the quality of information. We think it is important to
put these into the frame alongside the performance data, not least
because of the interpretative difficulties to which you and I
have referred. We think that often these focus on key aspects
of the quality of schools and whether improvement is happening
and how it is happening, which are not necessarily shown by the
performance data, so that we focus, for example, on what inspectors
as a professional judgment say about the quality of leadership
and management which we have argued consistently is one of the
principal leaders of change and if we find that, in some kind
of schools, the data from all the thousands of inspections we
do each year suggest that certain types of school overall are
doing slightly better on some of these categories, we think those
are important pieces of information to bring to your attention.
109. When you did your last report on specialist
schools, it was quite early days but one could say that your report
was reasonably positive. Has that continued in the same vein?
(Mr Taylor) I would like to ask Mr Raleigh to update
us quickly. As you say, the report is now over a year ago and,
since that, we have analysed the data. This is a change of landscape.
It is often said that inspectors have a snapshot view but, on
this, we are very much taking a longitudinal view on ever changing
landscapes. I think it is important that Mr Raleigh sketches in
some of the ways in which the data have or have not been done
since our working task group.
(Mr Raleigh) Looking at inspection data on specialist
schools that have had that status for at least two yearsand
that is quite importantin our previous report, we did the
same thing: we looked at those that had been established for some
time to see what effects the programme was having on their provision
generally and on achievement in schools. So, looking again at
the specialist schools that have had that status for at least
a couple of years, the inspection evidence for the last two years
indicates that the proportion of teaching judged to be good or
very good has grown for schools in the specialist category, although
it is not the same across the different types of specialism, and
that is another important point. This is not a homogeneous group.
The technology colleges and the languages colleges tended to have
a higher proportion of good or very good teaching than the arts
or sports colleges. Among the other features that come out from
the inspection data are the high proportion of schools where the
quality and range of learning opportunities were good. The proportion
of schools where management was judged to be good or very good
was also a distinguishing factor. Generally, those specialist
schools looked at over the last couple of years have shown greater
improvement since their previous inspection. That is the case
for the schools overall, although it is also a matter of concern
that a number of schools have not made any improvement nor in
fact have deteriorated. In looking at particular features of what
schools are doing now compared to those we looked at a couple
of years back, we are seeing some positive signs including more
widespread and more pertinent use of target setting, the specialist
subjectsand this is a particular issue in the specialist
schoolsbeing used more widely to improve teaching and achievement
across the range of subjects. We have seen the development of
a more systematic approach to school self-evaluation and we have
seen more purposeful work in those specialist schools with their
primary partners. So, there are improvements in relation to the
recommendations that were made in our report in 2001 although
one would have to say that all of those or virtually all of those
are features of school improvement which you would expect to find
in any school which is improving. We also looked at the GCSE results
in 2002, if you would like me to go on to that subject, again
for those schools that have had the status for at least two years
and, that shows that with the exception of sports colleges
110. How many have had it for two years?
(Mr Raleigh) These are 521 schools. There are some
900 operating now, so obviously the numbers have gone up considerably.
With the exception of sports colleges, the other categories of
specialist schools achieved higher GCSE average point scores than
schools nationally, with language colleges having the highest
proportion of five or more A to C GCSE grades. The trend of improvementand
I think this is an important factsince 1997 for those schools
is broadly similar to the national picture, although we should
say that not all the schools in that 521 have been specialist
schools since 1997. Quite a lot of them have but not all. So,
while they have been getting better, we are not talking about
dramatic transformation. Their trend of improvement is about the
same as nationally. It is also perhaps worth pointing out that
technology colleges, which form easily the biggest group of specialist
schools, have shown a slight fall in their improvement trend since
the analysis we undertook in 2001. I hope that is a picture which
updates our report on 2001.
Chairman: That gives us a good background.
Jeff Ennis
111. A recent LGA report suggested that specialist
schools were having a slightly negative impact on neighbouring
schools. Do you have any evidence about that statement or any
views on that particular aspect?
(Mr Raleigh) This programme is of course a school
improvement programme, it is designed to improve schools. I think
it is fair to say that unless improvement programmes are universal
and unless they are universally well implemented, then they will
have the effect of leading to greater improvement in those schools
than others, all other things being equal. At the expense of others
could beand I imagine it isinterpreted as those
schools becoming more popular because they are specialist schools.
When we did our detailed visits of 56 schools that we included
in our 2001 report, we were keen to try and get to the bottom
of that. It is actually extremely difficult to dissociate the
contribution that specialism may make to the expression of preferences
by parents. When pressed, the heads of about one-third of the
schools thought that there was a significant contribution at some
level but largely people, including the parents that we talked
to and pupils, were pointing to other factors. These were after
all schools that had been enabled to become specialist schools
because their track record was good. They had purposeful plans
for improving work in the specialist subjects and so on. So, they
were schools which were on the up. The reasons people were giving
for increased popularityand it was the case that these
schools were all more popular than they had been some years backwere
wide, varied but common to the preferences that, generally speaking,
parents have expressed. So, whether that means "at the expense
of other schools" is actually a rather tricky question. You
could apply exactly the same question to Excellence in Cities
as an initiative where secondary schools in that initiative have
been improving at a faster rate than others. Not all schools are
in the programme. There are schools in neighbouring authorities
which are not. You could argue that because that programme is
specifically targeted on need, that it is leading to greater improvement
and, in a fashion, one could say, though I think it is a long
stretch, that that is at the expense of other schools.
112. Presumably you will be monitoring the situation
on that.
(Mr Raleigh) Yes. It is not at all easy as I am sure
you have gathered from the research material and the academics
to whom you have spoken.
113. One of the main barriers that I see for
schools getting specialist school status in deprived areas such
as my ownmy constituency has the lowest level of GDP of
any constituency in the countryis the £50,000 contribution
that they are supposed to get from the private sector and industry.
I know that a head teacher in one of my local schools spent numerous
personnel hours on this raising a grant of £7,000 and yet,
in some school areas, they just pick up a phone to the multinational
industry next door and ask, "Can you give me £50,000,
please?" and the answer is, "Yes, you can have it tomorrow."
Do you think that there ought to be some flexibility in terms
of trying to involve local businesses into the specialist school
sector and do we need to have some sort of tier structure to achieve
that goal?
(Mr Raleigh) I believe that, in 1999, the Department
did introduce somewhat greater flexibility and indeed reduced
the level at which matched funding was needed.
114. It is still not getting through to our
schools.
(Mr Raleigh) One of the issues here is whether we
are talking about local business, which is generally what the
case was with the early schools in the programme, or business
more generally and indeed a wider range of organisations. So,
greater flexibility has been introduced. It is still the case,
as I know from visits to schools, that raising that sum is a significant
issue. The Department, were it here, might say that that is a
good test of the school's determination and persistence and a
good test of its enthusiasm to connect with business.
115. My concern is not whether it is a good
test or not, it is whether it is a fair test. Given that the Government
are pursuing the agenda of specialist school status, do you think
that a good model to bring in the status of all schools would
be to try and get a more collegiate approach between schools,
both specialist schools and also the non-specialist schools? The
evidence we are getting is that the more we build up the collegiate
approach between schools, the more that raises standards in general.
(Mr Raleigh) The programme has changed over time and
it is changing now. For this current round, the criteria have
been broadened to deliberately look to applications from a group
of schools or from pairs of schools. It is also focused more generally
on the community role of specialist schools, what they will do
for and with other schools and for the wider community. Local
education authorities are being encouraged to produce a strategic
plan within which new bids can be set. So, I think that development
is very much in train.
Paul Holmes
116. In the 2001 report on specialist schools,
you said that the majority of specialist schools are making good
use of the advantages that the programme brings. What do you think
are the key advantages that the specialist programme brings? Is
it that they become specialist in a particular subject or is it
that they go off through a management process to win the bid or
is it that they get £0.5 million extra?
(Mr Raleigh) All three! They are good components of
an answer! The fact that schools are encouraged/prompted to build
on strength is an important issue; the connection with business
and more generally looking outwards; to have a deliberate management
plan which is focusing on improvement not only in that specialist
subject but how that subject is going to contribute to improvement
across the board; having such a plan and having targets; an expectation
that that plan is reviewed rigorously; and an expectation that
practice is spread deliberately. All that is extremely helpful
and is a prompt for school improvement and you can see elements
of those characteristics of improvement programme in other activities
that the Government have promoted. So, it is a combination of
those elements. There is no question but that the funding is helpful,
although it is a complicated picture when you take into account
the basic funding in schools, so it is not always, so to speak,
as much as it looks. If the school's basic funding is pretty low,
then what it can do with the additional £123 per pupil is
a little more restrictive than elsewhere and that is an important
feature. The range of basic funding of the total funding that
we looked at among the 56 schools went from £2,000 per pupil
to £3,300, which is a big gap. So, the money is important
but it plays in within a more complicated picture.
117. If the specialist programme in its various
forms is such an advantage, would you not say, from an Ofsted's
point of view, that it is unfair therefore to restrict those advantages
to a limited number of schools? There are quite a large number
of schools that are turned down for specialist status each year
but then perhaps get it a year or two later, and one reason that
they are turned down is that there is a limited pot of money.
Why not give those advantages to all the schools that could benefit
rather than just to a cash limited arrangement?
(Mr Taylor) That would seem to be a good question
to put to the Government.
Paul Holmes: I have done!
Chairman
118. Mr Taylor, I do not know if that is not
really a cop-out.
(Mr Taylor) It was a polite way of reminding you of
the difficulty.
119. What are you saying to the Government on
that point?
(Mr Taylor) We have not been asked to give an opinion
on whether there should be a universal allocation.
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