ABSTRACT
A number of implications arise from the research that we have analysed and the case studies that we have presented. Those for government, local education authorities and schools are presented below.
Government should:
• ensure that where accountability mechanisms are in place these serve to reinforce the achievement of all pupils;
• ensure that all schools abide by the Code of Practice on School Admissions and that the criteria used in the event of oversubscription are clear, fair and objective and do not enable creaming of certain categories of pupils;
• ensure that interviewing, which provides scope for selection, is prohibited;
• provide greater financial incentives to schools to admit and retain pupils who have low levels of achievement, pupils with a history of truancy or school exclusion, or mobile pupils;
• publish data obtained from schools on known eligibility for free school meals, ethnic composition and gender along with data already available relating to other school characteristics;
• change the emphasis in the debate about school standards away from the current focus on the numbers of 16 year olds achieving five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C – at present 50 per cent achieve this target, the remaining 50 per cent do not; and schools need to be provided with incentives to ensure that all young people are given opportunities to maximise their achievements and not focus on those that are likely to enhance their league table position by reaching the five Cs threshold;
• prescribe minimum levels of competence for literacy, numeracy and ICT to raise expectations of teachers and students alike – these should be such that the vast majority of 16 year olds reach certain ‘minimum levels of competence’, and they should be reported in performance tables alongside examination results to ensure that there are incentives for schools to focus attention on maximising competence in these areas for all pupils, even the lower achievers; these qualifications should be compulsory for all pupils – they would not need to be examined separately, but could draw on students’ school work.
