Almost three million young people between the ages of 11 and 16 attend one of more than 3,400 maintained secondary schools in England. Improving the academic achievements of all secondary school pupils is a key priority of the Department for Education and Skills (the Department), and between 1998 and 2003 the percentage of pupils aged 16 who achieved qualifications equivalent to five GCSEs at grades A*-C increased from 46.3% to 52.6%. The Department has ambitious targets for further improvement.[1]
To secure further improvements, it is important to be clear about the factors that drive performance. Some of these are educational, and therefore within the control of schools, but many are not.[2] The National Audit Office has shown how the impact of external factors on performance can be measured and analysed to give a clearer indication of the quality of education provided by different schools, thereby providing valuable information for both parents and policy-makers.
Although most parents may have only a limited range of schools to choose for their children, providing parents with good quality information on the performance of schools is important to help them make an informed choice. Even where choice is limited, parents will still be interested in the quality of education provided by their child's school.
On the basis of a Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General,[3] we examined the Department for Education and Skills and the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) on how the Department measures and reports the performance of maintained secondary schools, and how the performance of secondary schools might be improved.
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