Increasing within‐school competition: a case for department level performance indicators?

Abstract

The authors investigate the size and stability of departmental effects in English secondary schooling during a period in which extensions to parental choice and annual publication of school performance tables had significantly increased competitive pressures on schools. Their database of nearly 450 English secondary schools enables them to investigate departments in terms of both their unadjusted and value‐added average students’ performance in national examinations. They are interested in the nature of within‐school competition and concentrate upon two subjects, geography and history, which were optional subjects in each of these schools. In general, they find that relative departmental performance varies significantly over time and that few departments manage to persistently out‐perform the other subject in their school. They conclude that given the instability of relative departmental performance, publication of department‐level performance indicators is unlikely to generate strong incentives for departments to raise their effort and effectiveness.

Keywords:

• school choice
• performance indicators
• curriculum
• competition
• student attainment

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article was presented at the European Conference on Education Research in Dublin in September 2005. We are grateful for the helpful comments received from participants at that conference and from an anonymous referee.

Notes

1. GCSE performance here is based on the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) GCSE point score where Grade A∗=8; A=7, and so on.

2. Further details on YELLIS pupil value‐added and residuals can be found at: www.cemcentre.org/renderpage.asp?linkid=11417001.