League tables- bullshit?

[3amEternal]

Just musing on all the results boasting going on by all the local schools in the local rag and on Facebook. The league tables will be published this week. League tables were really low down on the list of reasons we had for selecting a school. Sure it's important to see the exam results but the league tables offer no context to the entry criteria for their pupils. Of course highly selective schools both state and independent (some who aggressively weed out at various points) are going to be higher in the league tables. Doesn't necessarily reflect the teaching or pastoral care. When we were looking around last year I was surprised at how many parents were league table obsessed above everything else. DD sat for independents and many of the families on offer days hadn't even bothered to visit until then! I was sceptical about the pastoral care of schools that aggressively maintain their league table positions by weeding out children that they themselves thought good enough a few years ago. Thoughts?

I worked once at one of the many selective schools in North London and its periphery. Any student unlikely to make the grade was sent to a failing school within the area to sit their exams under its name. They got a load of Cs to add to their stats and we kept a high A/A* pass rate.

I think instead of exam results they should publish a % staff turnover. When I look for secondary school places for my kids I think it would be a lot more telling. I work in a single sex school so sadly only one of mine can come to where I am now

Just going back to the op.
Most, if not all, League Tables are flawed. As has been mentioned, the recent one doesn’t cover all schools.
Mainly, though, the ranking measure used is not meaningful, e.g. using Average Points Score per Pupil, which favours quantity over quality.

Having said that, creating your own table (assuming you are lucky enough to have a number of schools to select from) based on Performance Data can be a good aid to choosing a school. Unfortunately, some of the meaningful measures are hidden in the data downloads, not easily accessible on the Gov website, e.g. GCSE Average Point Score per Entry.

That's an interesting wheeze crazycatguy.. Both institutions get something out of misleading the general public. Why doesn't OFSTED stop this dirt of thing, I wonder.

It's unbelievably commonplace.

"It's unbelievably commonplace."

Really? Tell us more..........

I don't like the new DFE tables. It makes it impossible to properly dig down into the data. You could get a lot more info from the old ones. Especially from the bits that nobody ever bothered looking at.

crazycatguy

I assume that it was some time ago.

Its within the past few years. I'm aware of several schools that do this and the 'should we enter them if there's a distinct chance they won't get a grade we're happy to publish?' conversation has happened in every school I've ever worked in.

On principle, I have no problem with school statistics being published and no problem with schools being held to account for consistently bad results but at its extreme breeds a Stakhanovite culture that makes a mockery of the entire thing.

So when you said that "swapping students" was "unbelievably commonplace"......

I meant misleading figures was commonplace. Having students not entered under your centre via a variety of methods is commonplace. The particular method is one of the ways.

At a state I know they get rid of 'more vocational' students at age 14 and 'encourage' them to a college they have an arrangement with.
So, don't have to feature those kids results in maths and English at their stella A* school.
That's my take anyway....

What sort of college is that? I didn't know there were any that took 14 year olds......

Fairly new thing in our area.
This college usually takes children at 16 plus. School doing it has different take this on arrangement than me!
[It is not a UTC which of course does 14 and 16 as a matter of course].

PonderingProsecco

Those that go to college will still have to do the core subjects, I know this as we take the hit for progress 8 and ebacc data.

what is often missed is that is most cases it is better for the pupils.

crazycat

I still don't see how they can "swap" the children, they would have to move them to the other school fairly well in advance of the exams or they would still be on the schools register.

But who takes the hit? The school or the college?

the school does as the pupils are on the school's role.

Ahh- that seems fair....