Wilson D, Croxson B and Atkinson A, (2004)

‘What gets measured gets done: headteachers’ responses
to English secondary school performance measures’

CMPO Working Paper 04/107, CMPO, University of Bristol

• Reports the results of an interview-based study of 21 secondary school headteachers., attempting to ascertain their perceptions of league tables, and how they believe this affects their behaviour.

Key results:

• 18 out of 21 respondents identified the ‘percent of children obtaining 5 GCSE’s of grade C or above’ as the indicator on which they focused.
• In the words of one respondent: ‘… it’s the silliest measure anybody ever came up with, but it’s totally engrained on the public psyche, isn’t it?’.
• Eight headteachers admitted to targeting resources at the C/D borderline in order to improve their league table standing on this measure – using e.g. Saturday revision classes, mentoring, or entering borderline students for GNVQs instead of GCSEs.
• Six headteachers stated that they deliberately didn’t follow such a strategy.
• Most headteachers were aware of their school’s position in the league tables.
• There was a general consensus that the move towards value-added performance measures was a positive step, albeit with many caveats regarding the current form such measures take.
• However over half did not think parents would engage with the new measures in the short to medium term, partly because of the complexity of the measures themselves, and partly because of the wide range of indicators already available.
  

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