A few thoughts have struck me recently about the whole area of accountability in schools. It is almost impossible to argue against schools and teachers being accountable but, in a way, that is what I am about to do!
As a scientist measurement has always been a key part of everything I do. A guiding principle of good science is that when taking a measurement you should do it in a way that doesn't affect what you are measuring. This isn't always easy but we do try.
In school inspections the very opposite is true. Being inspected completely changes normal routines in a school. Teachers don't teach in the way that they normally do and spend hours more preparing. No teacher could possibly work at this level for more than a few days so inspections aren't looking at real teaching. I can think of colleagues in the past who have been fantastic at teaching one-off special lessons and are great at turning it on when they need to. This isn't how they teach for most of the time. A genuine inspection system ought to be looking at what is normally going on in schools.
Assessment through the dreaded SATs system is another attempt at measuring what is going on. I would challenge any teacher of Y6 pupils to claim that they don't aim towards the tests. They would be foolish not to because this is largely how they and their school are judged. Are we really saying that being able to regurgitate a few key facts is what makes up a good all round education. I think not. Again the very act of measurement is seriously affecting what normally happens.
The obvious conclusion here is that neither SATs or inspections are valid measurements. Why do we waste so much money on them in this case?
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