School and college accountability: 2020 to 2021 academic year
Published 19 July 2021
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2021
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Introduction
As part of steps taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government announced that all statutory key stage 1 and 2 assessments, tests and GCSEs, AS levels, A levels, other regulated general qualifications and some vocational and technical qualifications due to take place in schools and colleges in England in summer 2020 and in spring and summer 2021 would not go ahead as planned.
Qualification grades achieved using alternative assessment arrangements in 2020 and 2021 will not be used to produce the normal suite of institution level performance measures (for example Attainment 8, or level 3 value added) and Qualification Achievement Rates (QARs).
Using data
As in 2020, we will not publish institution level data based on 2021 key stage 1 and 2 assessments, tests, GCSEs, AS levels, A levels, other regulated general qualifications, or vocational and technical qualifications. QARs for 2020 to 2021 will also not be published at institution level.
This data will not be available for others, such as Ofsted, Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) or local authorities, to use to hold schools and colleges to account.
Those working with schools and colleges, such as Ofsted, Department for Education regional teams and local authorities, should use data from previous years as a starting point for discussions around a school’s or college’s performance but should not use 2020 or 2021 results data for this purpose.
We will not use the 2020 or 2021 results data when setting criteria in other areas, such as teaching schools, English hubs and free school applications.
Schools and colleges should not use the 2020 or 2021 results data as part of their teacher performance management process.
There is more information on how RSCs will make decisions during the 2020 to 2021 academic year. RSCs will make decisions during the 2021 to 2022 academic year in a broadly similar way, more details to follow in due course.
Qualifications achieved in 2020 and 2021 will not count towards performance measures in future years (where students who are not due to be reported this year, for example, those entering GCSEs early in year 10 in 2021, would not be included in any school level data in 2022).
Information for parents and students
We are still committed to making sure that we are providing information and reassurance on what matters most to parents about the education their child is receiving and to prospective parents and students who are choosing a school or college.
As previously announced, we intend to temporarily change the performance tables for 2021 to provide a transparent set of information.
In autumn 2021, we will use the compare school and college performance service to publish:
- a list of the subjects and qualifications pupils or students took at key stage 4 and 16 to 18, including, at KS4, the proportion entered for the EBacc combination of subjects
- data on how well schools and colleges support their key stage 4 and 16 to 18 pupils or students to their next destination
We had previously announced that we intended to also publish attendance data for key stage 1 to key stage 4, with relevant context to take account of the impact of COVID-19. Given rising infection rates in late 2020 and the decision to suspend mandatory attendance in early 2021, we no longer intend to publish attendance based on autumn term 2020 and spring term 2021 for key stage 1 to key stage 4 in performance tables.
2018 to 2019 academic year educational performance data will continue to be publicly available headline data in the performance tables. We will make clear on compare school and college performance that this data is historic and occurred prior to the pandemic.
Schools and colleges will continue to report students’ own qualification results to students and their parents.
National statistics
Following the cancellation of statutory national curriculum assessments due to be held in summer 2021 at key stage 1 and key stage 2, we will not publish any national, regional, local or constituency statistics for any primary school assessments for the 2020 to 2021 academic year.
As in the 2019 to 2020 academic year, we intend to publish national, regional, and local authority level educational performance data for key stage 4 and 16 to 18 for the 2020 to 2021 academic year. We intend to also publish this information by pupil characteristic and school or college type.