SCHOOLS' performance tables, first published in 1992 as part of John Major's "Citizen's Charter", were designed to enable parents to make more informed choices about their children's schooling, assist young people aged over 16 to consider course options and to raise standards in schools.
The first published tables were limited to secondary schools, while 1993 saw the inclusion of the further education sector. Primary schools will be included in performance tables from 1997.
State funded primary schools are required to distribute the free School Performance Booklet to parents of pupils about to transfer to secondary school. State funded secondary schools are obliged to distribute this booklet, along with another booklet showing the results of further education institutions to the parents of pupils approaching the end of compulsory education. Copies of both booklets are also available in British public libraries.
A spokesperson for the English Department for Education and Employment (DFEE) stressed to The Irish Times that what they publish are performance tables on a local education authority (LEA) basis, and that it is the media which publishes them as league tables.
Separate performance tables for England, Scotland and Wales are published in mid November. The Welsh tables, for example, give background information about each "school: its name, address and telephone number; its type (for example, LEA (controlled by the local education authority), independent, Welsh speaking); the age range of pupils; the number of pupils on roll, including the number aged 16 or over and the number of pupils with special educational needs; the number of pupils (if any) in special classes and, for an independent school, whether it participates in the Assisted Places Scheme (whereby an LEA finances some disadvantaged pupils to attend).
The performance tables also give the number of pupils aged 15 in each school and the percentage of age group who entered at least "one state exam (e.g. CoE (Certificate of Education) or GCSE); achieved one or more CoE only (but no GCSE); achieved at least one GCSE, grade A* to G (A* indicates outstanding achievement within the A grade); achieved at least five GCSEs, grades A* to G; and crucial benchmark for the media's scrutiny of performance tables - the percentage of 15 year olds in a given school who achieved at least five GCSEs, grades A* to C.
Also included are the so called "three year rolling averages" to even, out unusual blips in a school's performance, calculated as the average percentage of 15 year olds over rolling three year periods obtaining five GCSEs, grades A* to C, and A* to G. The percentage of 15 year olds awarded vocational qualifications is also given. Finally, the total number of pupils in a school aged 11 to 15 is shown with the percentage of their authorised and unauthorised absences.
For pupils aged 16 to 18, the tables present the number entered for fewer than two A levels (or equivalent) and the average points scored per pupil. Then the number of pupils entered for two or more A levels (or equivalent) is given showing the average points score per pupil; the percentage of pupils, achieving two or more graded A to C; the percentage of pupils achieving two or more grades A to E; and the average points score per pupil over recent three year periods (to even out any distribution caused by a typical year's results). Also shown is the average score per subject and the number of pupils aged 16 to 18 awarded vocational qualifications.
Since their inception, the tables have been criticised by many - including the Labour party - as crude, unfair and misleading. Performance tables, they claim, take no account of a school's intake or catchment area, its pupil teacher ratio, or issues such as the number of pupils for whom English is a second language.
Some schools are disadvantaged by the exclusion of GCSE pupils "aged over 15 from the tables. Schools listed near the bottom of the media generated league tables could be highly effective places of learning if measured against pupils standards at entry or their socioeconomic environment.
SOME ARGUE that performance tables unjustifiably damage pupil and teacher morale in such schools, and fail to affirm their achievements. Others suggest that pupils whose talents lie outside the academic sphere receive less attention now than before, might not be entered for exams, or may even more readily be "permanently excluded" in schools' attempts to jostle for position in the league tables.
Last November, the education minister at the Scottish Office, Raymond Robertson, claimed performance tables had "a major impact" on schools, resulting in rising standards and expectations. In 1995, 51 per cent of pupils in Scotland gained five or more standard grades at grades one to three. "This is more than half way towards one target," said Robertson, "which is 85 per cent to gain five or more standard, grades at grades one to three, or the equivalent, by age 19."
Undoubtedly, performance tables provide a measurement of examination achievements, show treads in performance, and enable country wide target setting. Perhaps the small print at the back of the current Scottish performance tables aptly encapsulates the strengths and the weaknesses of the tables:
"Examination results are one indicator of performance, a very important one, of course, but not one which gives the full picture of a school. In making judgments, these results should be considered alongside indicators of pupils' progress, of the quality of the learning experience and of the ethos of the school."
