School league tables 'causing drop in standards'
British pupils are falling behind those in other developed countries because heads place more focus on league tables than providing a rounded education, a study claims.
The annual league tables rank schools by their exam results, but critics say this encourages heads to pour resources into helping below-average pupils achieve the bare minimum in pursuit of “perverse” targets.
It could explain why British pupils rank increasingly poorly by international standards despite grades going up year by year, the study claimed.
The problem lies in the league table system which rewards "cramming" of the syllabus over understanding of the subject matter and threatens schools with closure if requirements are not met, the report says.
But Department for Education officials insist that an overhaul of the way league tables are calculated this year would put an end to schools “gaming the system” by focusing their resources on pupils at the borderline between the C and D grade bands.
The DFE will today release the latest batch of league tables, which are relied on by parents across the country to choose the best possible schools for their children.
Read more
... (Daily Telegraph - 26 January)