Schools told to raise the bar on GCSE exam results

Michael Gove says worst performers should meet current average by 2015 in bid to end ‘low-expectations culture’ The education secretary, Michael Gove, will try to demonstrate the coalition has not lost its zeal for public service reform on Thursday when he announces tougher exam targets for Britain’s worst-performing schools. In an attempt to end what he sees as the low-expectations culture in some schools, he will say that by 2015 he expects every secondary school in England to be achieving the national average of at least 50% of pupils achieving five A*-C grades at GCSE, including English and maths. If not the school will be regarded as underperforming. The current threshold to avoid that label is 35% of pupils getting five “good” GCSEs, including English and maths. The new goal would require 870 of the 3,000 secondary schools in England to improve by 2015 to avoid being taken over by a neighbouring headteacher or academy. Gove’s proposals indicate that neither the mishandling of the NHS reforms, nor the threat of a national teachers’ strike over pensions, have prompted a loss of confidence in the coalition about public service reform. In the speech Gove will challenge the country to recognise the scale of the education improvement still required in many schools by turning the current average performance into a minimum requirement. The plan represents a huge increase in the speed of demanded improvement in comparison with what Labour attempted after 2004. The targets will also inevitably become the yardstick against which Gove himself will be measured as education secretary by the next election. He will also propose as an interim measure that after the 2012 exams the floor of minimum performance is raised to 40% of pupils achieving five A*-Cs including in English and maths. At present 407 secondaries are below that level, but that number is dynamic and the list is bound to change by 2012. Gove will argue the rise of Asian economies and the sweep of technology are changing the demand for knowledge and skills so fast that Britain, and indeed Europe, has to accelerate the pace of improvement if it wants to avoid long-term economic decline. The education debate in the UK has been too inward-looking and failed to grasp the skills transformation in the far east, he will say. He will also argue that radical improvements will occur only if led by outstanding academies and headteachers on the ground, not micromanaged by Whitehall. In an attempt to confront parents, and the teaching profession, with the scale of the challenge, he will point out that in Singapore about 80% of pupils achieve at least a C in English and maths O-levels. In Britain, by contrast, about one-third of pupils do not achieve basic levels in English and maths at 11, and only half achieve at least grade Cs in English and Maths GCSE aged 16. If Britain is to justify claiming to have a world-class curriculum, exam system and world-class teachers, the levels of achievement in Singapore need to be matched, he will argue. Pointing once again to successful academies, such as Mossbourne in Hackney, east London, as well as his experiences in the US, Gove will argue that the envisaged improvements are achievable. Gove has the power to allow outstanding academies to take over failing schools and build new chains. In his speech, marking a new phase in schools reform and ending a period of relative silence from one of Cameron’s closest allies, Gove will also seek to rebut claims that he has perverted the academies programme by refocusing it solely on successful schools. The academies programme under Tony Blair was aimed at failing schools. In response Gove will also announce the government will turn at least 88 struggling schools into sponsored academies over the next two years. This is more than the Labour government achieved between 2000, when the academies programme was first announced, and 2008. Seventy-three of the new sponsored academies will be secondary schools and 13 primaries. Since coming to office Gove has already raised the minimum level of performance once, demanding all schools ensure 35% of pupils, as opposed to 30%, achieve five A*-C. The new demanding thresholds will be overseen by Dr Elizabeth Sidwell, the schools commissioner and a former headteacher and chief executive of three academies. She has already warned: “While there are many excellent schools in the country, the tail of underperformance is a long and depressing blight on our education system.” In his speech Gove will also promise that he will not tolerate underperformance in academies, vowing he will not allow the introduction of a two-tier system in which excuses are made for academies. He will argue that in academies by their nature it is simpler and easier for governors to act, but he will say he will not tolerate failure amongst academies. But he believes research overwhelmingly shows that academy status improves schools through innovations such as extended school days, changed payscales, and cuts in administrative costs such as payroll systems. Gove believes with the right leadership some schools can be turned around within three months. Gove will argue the key to building an effective education system is not Whitehall diktat, but by creating a system that leads to self-improvement. He will argue there are seven key pillars to reform, some of which he has yet to introduce: • Self-governing schools with a simple way to start new schools, and improvement driven by chains of schools which focus on the worst. • A higher entry bar for teaching, better pay for good teachers, and a faster system to remove unsuitable teachers • Planning and building regulation reform to make it easier for new and good schools to expand. • Improved curriculums and use of technology. • A more focused Ofsted inspection team. • A more transparent funding system. • Data transparency exemplified by the national pupil database going live on the web in 2012. Schools GCSEs Michael Gove Liberal-Conservative coalition Patrick Wintour Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 14, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.