Academies and achievement : setting the record straight Research report

Executive summary 1 Introduction 4 Note: abbreviations and technical notes 6 Have academies replaced 'underperforming' schools? 7 Have academies led to higher academic standards? 8 Have academies made greater use of alternative qualifications? 10 How well do disadvantaged pupils achieve in academies? 13 Do major sponsors contribute to school improvement and higher standards? 17 Does academy status prevent schools falling below floor targets? 22 Are academies ensuring a broad and balanced curriculum? 24 How likely are academy pupils to attain the EBacc subjects at GCSE? 28 Are academies more likely to improve GCSE results than other schools? 30 Are longer established academies any more successful? 34 Conclusion 37 Technical notes 40 References 44 1 Executive summary This research examines in detail the various claims made by Government of the benefits of academy schools. It seeks to determine whether there is indeed an 'academies effect' in terms of improving school performance. It has been claimed that: • academy status 'turns round' underperforming schools serving deprived communities; • disadvantaged young people make better progress in academies; • once well established, academies provide improved GCSE success across a broad curriculum; and • major academy chain sponsors are particularly effective. This research questions these assertions. It examines the details of individual school GCSE performance as well as the averages, and digs below the surface of headline figures. In particular, it questions the widespread myth that academies are predominantly replacements for 'failing schools'. It also questions the failure of official evaluations to examine academies' heavy use of alternative qualifications which are supposedly 'equivalent' to GCSE A*-C grades. Despite the current Secretary of State's condemnation of such over-reliance as 'gaming', official evaluations continue to sidestep this issue, which results in a lack of rigour when academies are compared to other schools. The main findings reveal that: 1) The headline attainment statistics for academies depend very heavily on alternative qualifications to GCSE. Without these 'equivalents', students in academies are just two-thirds as likely to achieve five or more A*-C grades including English and Maths as young people studying in non-academy schools. Academies rely on 'equivalents' to GCSE twice as heavily as other schools to boost their attainment scores. Government ministers call this practice 'gaming'. Although some other schools use this strategy too when faced with the pressure of league tables and Ofsted inspections, academies exploit it most. The use of equivalents inflates attainment figures for academies overall, …