School inspections 'bring improvement', says academic
Schools in England which fail inspections usually go on to improve, a study suggests.
Research published by the London School of Economics found that test scores improved at schools which had been failed by Ofsted inspectors.
And researcher Iftikhar Hussain concluded that inspectors were good at identifying good schools.
In the past, teachers and head teachers' unions have been critical of Ofsted.
Mr Hussain, a research associate of the LSE's Centre for Economic Performance, looked at the validity of Ofsted ratings.
He compared the rankings of 500 secondary schools with data collected by the government on what 14-year-olds there thought of their schools and teachers, as well as their parents' opinions.
Mr Hussain said: "The critical issue is whether inspection ratings summarise information about underlying school quality that is not already available in the public sphere. My findings demonstrate that on this measure, inspectors appear to be doing a reasonable job.
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... (BBC News - 16 February)