In many ways the abolition of one-or two-word judgments of schools’ overall effectiveness was an easy win for the secretary of state. The so-called ‘balanced report card’ may prove much more difficult to deliver.
The abolition of grades is cited as a major feature of the new government’s plans for Ofsted reform and involves replacing those problematic overall judgments with report cards offering parents “a much clearer, much broader picture of how schools are performing”.
But after that easy win, the development of such cards is going to be beset with difficulties, as yet unacknowledged by either Ofsted or the DfE.
A key issue in the design of report cards is likely to be the number and nature of any assessment grades they profile.
It seems very likely that the current four-point grades are likely to remain for the quality of education, personal development, leadership and management, and behaviour and attitudes judgments.
But what if a new framework results in different groupings including possibly the restoration of teaching quality?
It’s also been widely trailed that there is likely to be a new inclusion criterion along with possibly others relating to safeguarding and to attendance. Will there be yet other new assessment criteria, and will they be graded?
The introduction of a new inclusion criterion raises the question of how far such a complex and sensitive issue can be dealt with in a summary fashion. It certainly can be done tokenistically; this is (or should be) absolutely central to a school’s work.
Assuming we can get all these right, the likely suspects add up to seven already. How many will vie for the attention of parents and others? And how many is too many?
The presentation of the grades on the report cards will be problematic too. How prominent should they be in terms of placement on the card relative to other information?
How much prominence will ungraded aspects have? Will they be described using typically formulaic language? Or will bespoke descriptions be encouraged?
And then there’s the presentation of performance data, especially progress measures which the chief inspector is keen to strengthen.
Can such measures adequately reflect a school’s context? How prominent will assessment data be? What, from the vast amount of assessment data, will be prioritised for publication and how can it be explained clearly, simply and without distortion for report card readers?
Many other issues remain to be resolved including:
- how far the unique context and nature of each school can be conveyed to readers through a summary report;
- how far it is possible to produce a card equally relevant to each and every kind of educational setting;
- and whether the card will encourage or discourage parents from engaging with more detailed inspection findings.
Finally, amind fears that Ofsted is ‘running away’ with the report card’s design, there is the key issue of who should be taking the lead in its development. Should it be the responsibility of Ofsted itself despite the profession’s loss of faith in it? Or should it the DfE’s?
And crucially how can input by professional associations, trust and school leaders, governors, parents and even Ofsted critics be central, not peripheral, to deliberations before final decisions are made.
None of the solutions to these issues are likely to receive anywhere near unanimous consent. However, with a willingness on the part of the DfE and Ofsted to work sensitively with other stakeholders, reasonable, if revisable, decisions/compromises might be possible.
Perhaps, just perhaps, this could even be a way to help build faith back up in the inspection process.
However, report cards will do little or nothing to reduce the intense pressure on schools. They will not prevent the weaponisation of the six or more headline grades by those schools all too anxious to compete with others for pupils and/or for public accolades.
Only a total rethink of school accountability can alleviate such pressures and distortions.
Most significantly, report cards can only be as valuable or useful as the quality of the judgments they report. And here’s the rub. Can all those who have lost faith in Ofsted have confidence in report cards without fundamental reform of the inspectorate?
