Written question asked by Lord Lucas (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Adonis (Labour) on Monday, 20 June 2005.

Schools: Value-added League Tables

Question: What is their reaction to the recent paper Questioning The Value-Added League Tables: The Politicians' Error Revisited by Professor Stephen Gorard of the University of York.

Answer: Professor Gorard did share his paper with us before its publication. Though the statistics from the small group of LEAs used in the paper differ slightly from the national picture, we do accept that factors other than just prior attainment affect pupil outcomes (though prior attainment remains by far the most important factor). This is why we have developed a contextual value-added methodology which takes into account those other factors which are outside a school's control, for example, levels of deprivation and gender. The prototype model is currently available for use by schools in their self-evaluation via the department's pupil achievement tracker. A further refined model will be used this year in an achievement and attainment tables pilot which, if successful, will see a contextualised 11-16 value-added measure published for all secondary schools in the 2006 tables.

Secondary information