League tables will always leak
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League tables will always leak
https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/league-tables-will-always-leak
The problem, as Sam Galbraith, the former education minister, appears to have recognised, is that, if the information is going to seep out through the media, it might as well be published. That way the authorities can take the initiative, decide how the information is to be presented and issue all the usual caveats. The embarrassment for Glasgow issuing the wrong results under media scrutiny might then be avoided.
The first results from the new Scottish Survey of Achievement next month may be more reliable, but they will be susceptible to the same pressures.
The figures will be available for each authority and schools may have no option but to publish their own internal scores when the media comes a-calling.
The obvious answer is to put primary test results on the same online footing as those for secondary schools, which will still make them accessible and will not lay the Executive open to the charge that it is wilfully concealing information. The policy up to now may have appeared to be plain sailing, but it has been torpedoed.
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