Academic League Tables
In a keynote speech on Monday 26 November at the annual Haberdashers' Aske's lecture in London, Dr Anthony Seldon, one of the leading educational commentators in the UK, launched his harshest attack in recent times on academic league tables. He calls them 'naive and simplistic' and 'having an effect which is pernicious and corrupting', even though his school, Wellington College, is a rising star in the tables and has been highlighted as the most improved in Britain *.
In his speech, Dr Seldon says that the reverence given to school league tables in their current form is 'absurd' because of the damage they are doing to schooling and to education in Britain. He argues that giving so much credence to league tables based solely on exam results is 'madness' and 'has to stop'. He contends that league tables put the interests of schools above those of pupils, encourage dull, formulaic teaching, result in 'teaching to the test', detract from diversity, individuality and creativity in lessons and don't help students develop as independent learners, taking responsibility for their own learning. The relentless focus on academic grades is also producing as an unintended consequence a generation of young people who research is showing are 'exam junkies', reluctant to put effort into activities if there is no testing or exam involved.
"This is utter madness," said Dr Seldon. "League tables based only on exam results are bad for parents, bad for children, bad for teachers and bad for schools. It is not helping schools or resulting in better teaching, as the advocates of the league tables wanted, but is corrupting education. The league table position of the great majority of schools is decided not by the 20 per cent at the top, but the 20 per cent at the bottom. Good schools which take children of lesser academic ability are marginalised and characterised as second rate, while schools that take only bright children are lauded as 'top schools', with no sense at all of whether their teaching is any good or whether indeed they are turning out rounded young men and women. The only kind of meaningful league table is one that is based on value added. Raw league tables are simply statements of the academic quality of the children coming in and the teaching they've been given. The interesting story about schools at the top is the one the press regularly miss, which is why they are not all getting 100% As and Bs at A level, given how highly selective they are.
"You can't abolish these tables, but what you can do is change them to be based not only on value added but also on an indication of the pastoral and extra-curricular quality of the school. They could be more like university tables too, including teaching excellence, student satisfaction, university entry, applications per place and teacher experience for example. However, although this would be much better, I am reluctant for this to happen because of the bureaucracy and subjectivity involved."
This is not a matter of sour grapes - Dr Seldon took his previous school, Brighton College, from 3rd to 1st division in the league tables, and his present school, Wellington College, has risen rapidly and this year was picked out as the most improved independent school in Britain by the Financial Times. It has risen from 219 to 154 to 90 from 2005-2007 in the Sunday Times league tables and in the Daily Telegraph from 191 to 123 to 87 over the same period.
"League tables are a double-edged sword for every head of an independent school. This is the game we have to play, but we don't like it. We cannot ignore them as we rely on maintaining pupil numbers, and parents' money follows an increased league table position. And yet if you ask independent heads what they think of league tables, many will admit they deplore the effect they are having upon education. Universities are much to blame also - they insist on grades on UCAS forms rather than taking wider pupil achievement into account as US universities do. British universities know that grades given are largely the product of teacher ability and school system rather than the raw ability of the candidate. By being supine, they are playing their own part in narrowing and diminishing the quality of British education."
* Financial Times, 2007
