Why league tables do not improve schooling

Media Release

Three reasons why league tables do not improve schooling

Liz Gordon
National Chairperson
Quality Public Education Coalition

QPEC is dismayed at reports that the Government intends to introduce league tables in schools.

“There are three main reasons why league tables are bad policy”, says Chairperson Dr Liz Gordon.

“First, only some things can be measured, and these are not always what is valuable about education. You can only measure achievement, not interest, engagement, passion, social skills and all the other things that go on in schools.

“Second, league table tests only tell us what we already know, that kids in wealthy areas do much better in school than kids in poor areas. A league table based on pure socio economic factors will be virtually identical to one based on educational achievement.

“Finally, in countries which have league tables, there is strong evidence that teachers are forced to ‘teach to the test’. This may increase performance on individual indicators, but there is no evidence that populations are better educated as a result. There is evidence that schooling becomes a lot narrower and less engaging for hard-to-teach children”.

Dr Gordon says that we already know that there is a hierarchy of school performance based on student background.

“The PIRLS studies over the past 20 years have seen NZ drop from first, to 6th, to 13th and now to 24th in the world rankings for literacy. The sole reason is that economic and social inequalities have impacted heavily on the bottom quarter of the population, putting up huge barriers to learning and causing falling levels of literacy.

The solutions do not lie in naming and shaming poor schools, nor in celebrating high achievement in Remuera or Fendalton. Policy should not be based on such crude indicators. We need to address causes, not symptoms.

“QPEC wants to see effective policies to close the gap, not ones that further alienate those many teachers working in our poorest schools, often against enormous odds”.

ENDS

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