ERIC Number: EJ1046847
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Dec
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0042-0972
EISSN: N/A
Inspection Judgements on Urban Schools: A Case for the Defence
Gorton, Julian; Williams, Melanie; Wrigley, Terry
Urban Review: Issues and Ideas in Public Education, v46 n5 p891-903 Dec 2014
This article is co-authored by two urban school Heads in the north of England with the support of an academic partner. The article begins with the phenomenon of official judgements of urban schools, made by the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, a semi-privatised and supposedly independent arm of government. The discussion places in question its work in raising achievement, particularly in areas of deprivation. It points to deep flaws in the operation of policy-as-numbers and high-stakes accountability, contrasting the punitive style and consequences with collaborative principles of leadership and school change. The article looks at how summative judgements gloss over the complexities of students' lives and teachers' work, and ignore evidence of what is actually being done to meet policy expectations. Our conclusion is that more intelligent forms of school accountability are needed which do not constantly undermine the improvement processes of urban schools and damage reputations with labels such as "requires improvement" "special measures" or more colloquially "failing school". This "intelligent accountability" might begin to support a more community-orientated moral purpose in leadership and pedagogy.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Urban Schools, Inspection, Academic Achievement, Disadvantaged Schools, Accountability, Instructional Leadership, Educational Change, Summative Evaluation, Educational Policy
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A