Mathematical conjuring obscures understanding of what is going on

WORKING in secondary schools as an independent consultant for the past eight years, and as a parent, I am amazed at the mathematical conjuring which stands between the public and any understanding of what is going on in schools.

The latest example is the controversy over the awarding of points to vocational subjects. It is complex, bureaucratic and a complete mystery to parents who are seeking to judge whether a school is performing well.

It is now laborious work to decide what qualifications are "equivalent" to what. But cake decorating is not equivalent to physics, and I'm not sure who is well served by declaring that it is.

Two motives lie behind the collection and publication of performance data on schools: the driving up of standards, and giving parents the information they need to make choices about their children's education.

Increasing numbers of people now question the calculations about what is equivalent to what in the game of amassing league table points.

Does the motivation of driving up standards justify this practice? That all depends of course, on what standards we are looking for. And that's the issue. With a really narrow definition of school improvement, the results sound fine.

If we stick to the idea that more children with higher grades in greater numbers is what we want, then we are winning. I am not convinced that we are.

Headteachers, under pressure to keep numbers climbing, now have difficult choices to make. Do they encourage pupils to make a modest attempt at GCSE French or history and risk them achieving a low grade, or do they opt for a vocational course because the points score for the school is likely to be higher?

IAM the last person to rubbish vocational courses.

High-quality vocational learning deserves a central place in our education system.

The Tomlinson Report is right to attempt to remove the longstanding distinction between the highly rated academic curriculum and the poorly regarded vocational one.

And, yes, there needs to be an incentive for headteachers to offer more work-related courses to their pupils. But not this.

It is worth noting that parents do not generally start with exam performance when looking at schools. They start with criteria about the proximity of the school and their child's friendship group.

Most parents look at performance data once they know what schools they are considering. If and when they seek comparative data, what they find is not for the fainthearted.

For example, the task of finding out how many children in local schools attained at least GCSE grade C in Maths, English and Science, is entangled with information about pupils whose single vocational qualifications carry the weight of at least four grade-C GCSEs.

However helpful it may be to the Government's drive to produce data showing rising standards, arbitrary decisions about one course being "equivalent" to another can only mystify rather than help.

. Frances Child is a former head of modern languages and deputy headmistress of a Birmingham comprehensive.

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