ABSTRACT
Standards are going up in English schools. This at least is the judgement of the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), based on its inspections of schools during recent years. Both the 1999 Chief Inspector’s report on English primary schools and the 1998 review of secondary education in England report rising levels of performance. For example, in primary schools:
The quality of education in primary schools has improved… More children are achieving higher standards by the time they transfer to secondary school. At Key Stage 2 there has been a substantial increase in the proportion of pupils achieving Level 4 in English and mathematics. This proportion has risen by about 15 percentage points over the four years.
