House of Commons - Public Accounts

Select Committee on Public Accounts Fifty-Second Report

1 Progress in improving pupils' educational attainment

1. Existing academies are improving educational attainment, reflecting the hard work of pupils and staff. So far, however, the large majority of pupils who have taken GCSEs in academies have received some of their education in other secondary schools, so the full impact of even the early academies is not yet known. It is therefore too early to conclude whether the Academies programme will achieve its aim of transforming academic achievement in the most deprived areas in England.[4]

2. The first academies have improved academic performance at GCSE compared to their predecessor schools. Figure 1 shows that predecessor schools were, on average, performing poorly three years before becoming an academy. Performance improved in the run up to becoming an academy and in each of the next three years.[5]

Figure 1: GCSE results of academies and their predecessor schools

Average percentage of pupils achieving five GCSEs at A* to C

Examination results before/after becoming an academy

Note 1: The first four bars are based on average data from 20 academies, and the fifth and sixth bars are based on the first 13 and 10 academies respectively.

Source: National Audit Office

3. Any school that acquires a new building, a new head teacher and many new staff is likely to improve its pupils' levels of attainment. Such changes can lead to an improvement in morale and behaviour that makes a school almost unrecognisable as the predecessor school, though many of the pupils are the same. It is therefore difficult to assess how far improvements in results in academies derive from the Academies programme itself and the features that make academies different from other schools, or from the high level of expenditure involved in opening an academy. Currently there are too few long-established academies to judge whether the comparable improvements could have been achieved within the existing secondary school system.[6]

4. The closest comparator group to academies is the 22 Fresh Start schools that replaced some of the most poorly performing schools between 1998 and 2002. These schools often have a large number of staff changes and usually some new capital works but not entire new buildings. The extent of change is more substantial in academies. Excellence in Cities schools, another comparator group, also receive funding to raise educational standards, but they include a broader range of schools.[7] The Department plans to obtain data on other new secondary schools and to compare their academic improvements with those of academies.[8]

5. The first 20 academies' GCSE results in 2006 were on average higher than Fresh Start schools, lower than Excellence in Cities schools in deprived areas, and much lower than for secondary schools overall.[9] The academies' key results were:

22% of pupils achieved five or more A*-C grades, including English and maths;
40% of pupils achieved five or more A*-C grades; and
80% of pupils achieved five or more A*-G grades.[10]

6. Academies' lower results compared with secondary schools overall reflect the circumstances and prior attainment of their pupils. The 'contextually value added' measure adjusts a school's performance for these factors. In 2006, academies' adjusted performance was on average substantially better than secondary schools overall, Fresh Start schools and Excellence in Cities schools.[11] Academies have also been developing their curriculum to make it more relevant to pupils who were not well served by traditional GCSEs.[12]

7. Between 2005 and 2006, academies improved GCSE performance more quickly than other schools; for example the percentage of academy pupils gaining five or more A*-C grades when maths and English are excluded increased by 5.8 percentage points compared with 2.5 percentage points in all schools. The improvement was made from a low base and here is still a long way to go. The Department is committed to the Academies programme achieving further improvements in attainment.[13]

8. Academies' performance in English and maths at GCSE level and at Key Stage 3 (national tests for 14-year olds) is improving faster than other schools, but it is still well below national averages (Figure 2), with performance at GCSE still less than half the national average. Many academies are focusing attention on helping year 7 pupils (i.e. just starting their secondary education) to catch up with literacy and numeracy. A lot are using a particular programme called Read Write Inc, based on experience of using it in the London Challenge.[14] Some academies such as the City of London Academy (Southwark), which was above the national average in English and maths, have made good progress.[15]

Figure 2: Academies' performance in English and maths, 2006

Pupils achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs including English and maths (%) Percentage point improvement in pupils achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs including English and maths Pupils achieving level 5 or above in English at Key Stage 3 (%) Pupils achieving level 5 or above in maths at Key Stage 3 (%)

Academies 22 6.0 59 63

Excellence in Cities schools (in deprived areas) 29 2.1 60 66

Fresh Start schools 17 1.3 45 54

All schools 45 1.5 74 78

Source: National Audit Office, Department for Education and Skills' note to the Committee

9. The performance of academies at advanced level has been poor, reflecting a range of factors including the small size of most academies' sixth forms, a legacy of poor standards from predecessor schools and a lack of emphasis on sixth forms in the first years of most academies. In 2006, the average point score of students at the first 13 academy sixth forms was 541, well below the national average of 722 points.[16] The Department and academy principals are starting to apply lessons learned from improving education for the 11 to 16 years age range, as well as lessons from Ofsted inspections of sixth forms. It will take some time to improve sixth forms where standards were previously low, but improving the quality of post-16 education is especially important in encouraging young people to stay in education up to age 18, and in achieving the Government's objective to widen participation in higher education.[17]

10. It would be possible for any school to influence its academic results if it were able to select pupils by ability. Academies are 'admissions authorities' but are required to work within the standard admissions code of practice that applies to other schools.[18] Where they are over-subscribed, academies must publish their criteria for how they decide which applicants are given places, and these criteria must be consistent with the code.[19] Some academies select up to 10% of pupils on aptitude for the academy's chosen specialism, as do some of the 80% of secondary schools that have specialist status.[20] The first academies, on average, admitted higher proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals, with special educational needs, and with lower prior attainment than lived in their immediate vicinity.[21] The Department considers that the popularity of academies is evidence that parents see them as a source of high quality education that did not exist previously.[22]

11. Any school can also influence its academic results by excluding poorly performing pupils and by seeking to attract high ability pupils. Academies, however, like other publicly funded schools, must act in accordance with the Secretary of State's guidance for schools on exclusions.[23] In 2005 academies permanently excluded a higher proportion of their pupils than other schools, including Fresh Start schools and Excellence in Cities schools in deprived areas: 0.61% of academy pupils were excluded, compared with 0.16% in other schools.[24] A higher level of exclusions may reflect a new behaviour policy.[25] A firmer line on disruptive pupils can result in higher levels of exclusions in the first year, which should however be followed by a decline.[26] In its inspections, Ofsted examines whether an academy's rate of exclusions is appropriate.[27] The Department considers that exclusion rates at the more established academies are settling down to levels that are comparable with other similar schools.[28]