They may have been around for some time, but school league tables have not ceased to be controversial. Publication of the latest tables in England last week was accompanied by criticism from teaching unions in what has become an annual ritual.
The tables are “the wrong way to look at school achievement”, according to Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest union, while Mary Bousted of the rival Association of Teachers and Lecturers claims league tables make it harder for schools to deliver the range of skills students need.
To some extent the unions are going through the motions. No-one seriously believes league tables are going away. The political imperatives to hold public services to account are too strong, and parents are now so used to the tables that scrapping them is unthinkable.
But there is evidence that these objections are not just hot air, they are misguided, and that far from threatening progress, making schools accountable is good for students.
In the U.S., school accountability has a long track record. Even before No Child Left Behind (NCLB) required annual assessments, the majority of states published report cards on schools. In England, performance tables for secondary (high) schools have been published since 1992.
This means there is now a substantial amount of data for researchers to work on, and the results suggest a link between accountability and achievement.
In one U.S. study, for example, researchers found accountability systems had “a clear positive impact on student achievement”. The study also found no evidence that schools were ‘dumping’ students – either through exclusion or encouraging drop-outs - to try to improve their league table position, a common accusation from critics.
Another U.S. study on the impact of NCLB found significant improvements in performance in math, particularly among low-achieving groups, although this was not repeated in reading skills.
Heartening as these findings are to league table advocates, while they suggest a link between accountability and achievement, the former did not necessarily cause the latter. The lack of a control group and problems in untangling the effect of accountability when it is often accompanied by other reforms are among the difficulties identified by researchers.
A study from the U.K. is able to address these concerns, however, and it’s all thanks to devolution. The English and Welsh education systems have long been closely tied, and both published performance tables between 1992 and 2001.
But following the creation of the Welsh Assembly, the Welsh government scrapped league tables in 2001. Thankfully for researchers they left the rest of the system largely unchanged. As a result, they both provided a control group, and made it possible to discern the impact of a single variable, namely the league tables.
A team led by Professor Simon Burgess at Bristol University took the opportunity to measure the influence of the tables, and their findings make interesting reading. Analysis showed that abolishing the league tables made a significant difference to achievement and substantially reduced school effectiveness.
Indeed, the effect was so great that scrapping league tables was the equivalent of adding an extra eight students into a class of 30.
It is also notable that it was only seen in the lower-performing 75% of schools. The top 25% were unaffected. Getting rid of league tables not only lowered average performance it also increased inequality.
The reasons for this effect are less clear, but a plausible explanation advanced by Burgess and his team is that high stakes accountability, in the form of published league tables, is a powerful incentive to improve performance, a result that has also been found in healthcare.
The researchers also found there was no evidence that publishing league tables caused social segregation, another accusation levelled by opponents, who suggest the tables prompt better-off parents to colonise higher performing schools.
This does not mean league tables are problem-free. They are still vulnerable to gaming or even cheating as schools look to any means to improve their position, according to Professor Robert Coe of Durham University, an expert on school standards.
It was to try to counter possible gaming, with schools entering students for subjects perceived as easier to score high grades, that the Department for Education this year separated league tables into academic and vocational qualifications.
Perhaps this is the future for school league tables, trying to clamp down on each new wheeze in the same way tax collectors try to close loopholes. Just as some accountants will always think up new ways to avoid tax, so some teachers will always think up ways to steal a march.
This does not mean the tables should be discarded, any more than it means tax should be scrapped. And now that we know league tables make a difference, perhaps it is time to move the debate on from whether they should exist or not. We know they work, the challenge now is to make them work better.
