Teachers ‘are manipulating results’

Results are being manipulated to make schools look better and to meet targets, studies show.

Three separate small-scale papers, being presented at the British Educational Research Association’s (BERA) annual conference in London this week, reveal teachers are altering judgments following pressure from senior school staff or local councils.

One study, by Professor Martin Fautley at Birmingham City University, looked at the marks given to 11-14-year-olds in music lessons. Teachers usually provide information regularly on which level of the national curriculum a child has reached as they progress through “key stages” at school.

The study, which surveyed 57 music teachers, found that more than a third said they had to show that their pupils had made enough progress in class.

One teacher told researchers: “I thought I was free to use my professional discretion, but at the end of the key stage was told to change the levels to meet the percentage target.”

The second study, by Alice Bradbury at the Institute of Education looked at the experiences of reception class teachers at two primary schools.

The findings show that the teachers felt pressurised to change results to meet the progress expected of their inner-city schools.

One of the teachers said he was told, or felt obliged to lower children’s marks so that the overall scores were not too close to the government’s national benchmark.

The third study looked at science departments in two secondary schools after science Sats tests for 14-year-olds were scrapped in 2008.

It found evidence of staff at both schools making up results.

The conference has also heard research which suggested many children could be finding their school not challenging enough. A study concluded that a fifth of youngsters strongly believe that their lessons are not too difficult, and there is some evidence that bright children are more likely to feel they are not being stretched.

The study, conducted by the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education, is based on a survey of more than 8,000 primary and secondary school pupils. Children were asked about the national curriculum.