Education leaders have warned Ofsted that it may have created a “misleading” picture of declining standards because it has “shifted the goalposts” on what is expected of “outstanding”-rated schools.
The inspectorate published a report today revealing that 83 per cent of previously top-rated schools have been downgraded in full inspections in the past academic year, after an exemption on inspection for “outstanding” schools was lifted.
However, sector leaders are warning that Ofsted has moved the goalposts on what is expected of “outstanding” schools under its new inspection framework, making it more difficult to achieve a top rating.
A headteachers’ union has responded to the new Ofsted report by calling the inspectorate’s grading inspection judgements a “woefully blunt” tool, and saying there needs to be system reform.
And concerns about the messaging in the report have been raised by Steve Rollett, the deputy chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts.
He said: “The bar for ‘outstanding’ has been raised in the EIF [Education Inspection Framework] not only because of the focus on curriculum, which Ofsted mentions in the report, but also because the mechanism of arriving at an ‘outstanding’ grade is now different.”
Questions over Ofsted school ratings
Mr Rollett added that, under previous inspection frameworks, schools did not have to meet every single grade criteria in order to achieve an “outstanding”.
Under the EIF, schools must meet all grade criteria to achieve an “outstanding” or “good”.
In a thread on Twitter, Mr Rollett wrote: “We can debate whether this is right or not but the reality is that many of those judged ‘outstanding’ would not have met that threshold if applied under previous frameworks.”
He described this change as part of a systematic choice to drive down the proportion of “outstanding” schools.
Mr Rollett said the majority of the previously “outstanding”-rated schools that were downgraded went from “outstanding” to “good”, and said that it was plausible that in many cases this was a symptom of the change in framework.
He added: “Arguably, a more concise report might simply have said, ‘Ofsted wanted to have fewer ‘outstanding’ schools in the system, so this is what has happened....”
Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman strongly denied that the watchdog had a “quota” for downgrading schools when appearing before the Commons Education Select Committee earlier today.
Mr Rollett’s thread continued: ”[In] summary, while the report rightly argues that the exemption for ‘outstanding’ schools was problematic, I worry the collateral damage of making that point has been to paint a picture of declining standards. This may be misleading in some cases.”
Mr Rollett told Tes that Ofsted’s change in inspection criteria had “effectively moved goalposts”, making it difficult to know that an inspection judgement change of “outstanding” to “good” reflects a change in standards.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: ”Schools judged as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted were previously exempted from inspections because the government decided that would be a good idea.
“It has since changed its mind and Ofsted is now inspecting schools that have not been inspected for many years and were previously inspected under a different inspection framework with different criteria.
“Unsurprisingly, all this shifting of goalposts is leading to changes in the graded judgements of these schools.”
He added: “Ofsted graded judgements are a woefully blunt tool and where these are negative it is often stigmatising and makes improvement harder to secure.
“We need to move towards a more supportive and less punitive inspection system, as this would clearly be in the best interests of the children and young people served by these schools.”
Ofsted declined to comment.
