League Tables: Confusion?

There is a lot of excitement in the educational world today because the new league tables published are not following the previous format and are judging outcomes in a revised methodology and to new standards. The change is designed to demonstrate more reliably how well a school is providing its students with the kind of education which should be valuable in developing their lives and careers. It is no use sending our young people into a workplace which gives their jobs to better educated Poles.

Nevertheless when change like this occurs, the moment of change is uncomfortable because people tend to compare the new table with the old, when such a comparison will not work. Some schools seem to have prepared better than others and maintained a competitive standard. Others, formerly top performers like my local Academy, appear to have fallen off a cliff. Those which have done so will no doubt show up better next year. If they don’t we shall know that not all was as we were earlier led to believe. Parents will vote with their feet. That apparently is the whole idea.