Press Story

New school league tables will divert resources away from the poorest pupils, according to ippr.

Nick Pearce, ippr Director, said:

'Schools that have tumbled down today's league tables will now be encouraged to focus their resources on better-off children likely to get the English Bac, undermining well-intentioned policies like the pupil premium.
'Michael Gove is pushing schools in two different directions: on the one hand he is measuring success according to how many of their pupils get the English Bac, and on the other hand he has set a floor target that 35 per cent of all pupils in a school should get 5 A*-C GCSEs including English and Maths.
'There should be a Pupil Premium Entitlement so that the government's extra funds are spent directly on the poorest pupils and school performance should be measured not just by raw attainment but by a school report card that directly measures the performance of pupils on free school meals. The floor target for struggling schools should be made much more stretching.'

Notes to editors

ippr published Room for Improvement, its response to the schools white paper, in December.

Under the new system being launched, schools will be measured on the basis of how many pupils get good GCSEs in five designated subjects - English, maths, science, a language and a humanity. Under the previous system schools were ranked on their results across a wider range of subjects. But ippr analysis shows that these reforms to league tables are likely to encourage schools to focus their resources on more affluent pupils.

Latest figures (2009) show that only 26.6 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals achieved 5 or more A*-C grade GCSEs or equivalent including English and Maths, compared to 54.2 per cent of pupils not eligible for free school meals - an attainment gap of 27.6 percentage points.

Only 13.9 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals achieved A*-C in a modern foreign language, compared to 30.4 per cent of pupils not eligible for free school meals - an attainment gap of 16.5 percentage points.

Only 34 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals achieved 2 A*-C grades in science subjects, compared to 57 per cent of pupils not eligible for free school meals - an attainment gap of 23 percentage points.

By placing the English Bac at the heart of the new accountability framework, ippr argues that the government is providing incentives for schools to divert resources towards those better-off children likely to do well in the academic subjects contained in the English Bac. As the government is giving schools greater freedom over how they spend their money, there is a danger that money intended to help low-income children, such as the pupil premium, will be diverted to the more affluent pupils that will help boost a school's position in league tables.

To avoid this ippr recommends that:

there should be a Pupil Premium Entitlement so that the pupil premium is spent directly on extra support for children eligible for free school meals
school performance should be measured not just be raw attainment but by a school report card that also directly measures the performance of pupils from poorer backgrounds
the floor target for struggling schools should be made much more stretching: all schools should ensure that 40 per cent of their pupils attain 5 A*-C GCSEs including English and Maths by 2015 (currently the target is 35 per cent of pupils to attain these grades and there is no deadline).

Contact

Richard Darlington: r.darlington@ippr.org / 07525 481 602