The Problem with High Attainers (Entering at Level 5)

 This is another post trying to give you uses for the Performance Tables.

The first thing to notice is that there are only 62 schools in the country with P8 of 0.5 or higher for students entering at level 5. This compares to 243 schools which reach that P8 figure from students entering at level 3!

This probably goes against our natural inclination – bright students learn quicker and should make more progress, shouldn’t they? What is going on?

We are the problem.

My conjecture is this: we vastly underestimate what our more able can do. The ways we do this are endemic in schools. We set, with fewer top sets spaces than the number of students who should be in them. We exclude the lazy, even if they have very high IQ scores or enter on a level 5. We consequently discriminate against bright boys in particular, as they make up the bulk of this lazy group – we fail to pass on our higher expectations to them. I’m willing to bet that the difference in boys and girls progress is equal to the difference in their placement in top sets. But this data goes far beyond that. it suggests that we don’t stretch our top sets enough, no matter who is in them.

Nationally speaking, have particularly high expectations. If you want to see what is so wrong with our expectations, consider this one fact. Nearly every grammar school sets. So, most students in a grammar school are told they are not bright enough, as they are not in a top set. Imagine that – all these students who have already averaged level 5, and passed an 11+ on top of that, the students who would walk into top sets in your school: well, two thirds of them are told they are not good enough the moment they walk through a grammar school’s doors.

How do grammar schools do? Well, only 14 selective schools make it into this list of 62 schools. There are 164 grammar schools in the country! The progress students make at grammar schools is woeful – those are simply facts.

But let’s not get complacent here. With 3117 secondary schools in the country, only 62 of all schools reach this figure of P8 0.5. That’s 2%! Why?

The answer is so obvious you won’t believe it. It’s this. We limit our more able by entering them for GCSE. We cap them, put on the brakes, tell them to hold their horses. What we should be doing is pricking the sides of their intent with the spurs of AS levels.

Now that these are decoupled from A levels, for our most able, how much more interesting and valuable would an AS level be than GCSE?

I’m also willing to bet that the AS exams themselves are a better test of student – not because they are harder, but because they are also more concerned with the subject. Certainly, at English Language and literature GCSEs, students have to jump through an enormous number of exam based hoops which have everything to do with exam technique and next to nothing to do with ability at English.

In other words, we are not teaching our more able students to master our subjects. Instead we are teaching them merely so they will know more than those who are less able than them. It is a bit like owning a Porsche and taking pride because we can drive it 10 miles an hour faster than a Mini, or hanging out with a fat friend so we can feel fitter, healthier and more attractive than them.

Here is the table of top schools for Progress 8 with students entering at level 5

Some Thoughts

24 of these schools are religious. We should ask ourselves what this helps the school adopt in terms of ethos and culture. (Given that these schools are Jewish, Muslim, Church of England and Catholic we can safely assume it is not one particular deity at work).

An overwhelming number of these schools are in the south and London. Apart from funding, what else might be contributing to this? This is interesting, because the bias toward London was not apparent with students entering at level 3.

Because there are relatively few such schools outside of London, it will be well worth visiting them to see what they are achieving without the apparent advantages London and the south have.

Here is a table of all those schools outside London

You may notice that 6 of the top 11 have a religious denomination. Something clearly 1s up. What is it about the culture of these schools, and how can we find out?

One way is to visit. That’s why I’ve kept the phone numbers for you.

Another is to add comment below, especially if you teach in one of these schools, and we can crowdsource some solutions all schools can steal.