Essay Example on UK School Performance Measurement: Pros & Cons

Performance indicators are defined as measures, which give information and statistics context and permits comparisons between fields, over time, and with commonly accepted standards. Governments use different systems to measure the performance of schools. Although the performance measurement indicators are useful as they enhance education, at times, they have adverse effects on the public. The intention of school performance measurement in the UK does not measure what it intends to measure. The initial intention was to use the performance indicators (PI) table in helping parents choose schools for their children and the government meeting public demands of accountability and maintaining educational standards in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, the use of 'league tables' as PI has resulted in media and political bashing of the teachers and schools, especially for the non-performing schools.

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The negative effects of the performance indicators measurements include the closing of failing schools. A school might not perform as expected since most parents do choose the best schools for their performing children based on the league tables (Burgess, 2019). It means that the non-performing students will end up together in a school, which might not be able to even perform well in the future. League tables seem to be misleading. The reason is that the schools, which are usually in the bottom, are the ones in high social deprivation areas. Another impact of the league table is that it only presents the results of the exam instead of considering the economic and social factors that resulted in the children's attainment (Burgess, 2019). As such, schools education performance indicators used by different institutions do not demonstrate the quality of education, but rather quantities of its outcomes.

In order to avoid limitations, performance indicators can focus on the 'value' added to students by their education experience, in terms of satisfaction with the quality of their experience and the quality of the skills they have developed. It is better to provide information that can be used for enhancing teaching and learning. The reason is that collecting information on student satisfaction and skills more instructive to the institution, teacher, and prospective students are also essential. On the issue of parents selecting schools for their children, it should be banned, and the education department takes charge of the selection process. Also, students should not be segregated based on flawed fail or pass. This strategy will give all the students the chance of showcasing their capabilities irrespective of their social status. The United Kingdom government should also ensure that students from all over the country have the same educational resources in schools. It will make the students from high social deprivation areas to feel that they are part of the school education.

The USA has implemented performance measurements in their institutions from elementary level to higher education level. An example of a system used by the United States of America is the GreatSchools rating (Collister, 2019). The tool is used by parents in comparing schools basing on available data and test scores, college readiness, and academic growth of a student. Unfortunately, it is almost similar to the League Table system as it encourages neighborhood segregation in society (Collister, 2019).

Conclusion

In conclusion, school ranking is a good strategy for parents and children as it helps them choose the best schools for their children. However, measuring a school's quality should only be based on performance results. Other factors should also be considered, for instance, how they perform in co-curricular activities. The issue of ranking schools also encourages neighborhood segregation and can affect students' performance.

References

Burgess, N. (2019, January 26). Ban school league tables. They're not just misleading, they're harmful | Nuala Burgess. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/26/school-league-tables-research-grammar

Collister, C. (2019, May 29). How GreatSchools Rankings Encourage Neighborhood Segregation. https://thebolditalic.com/school-quality-beyond-a-number-6cd995b42b6d