Inspection Judgements on Urban Schools: A Case for the Defence

Abstract

This article is co-authored by two urban school Heads in the north of England with the support of an academic partner. The article begins with the phenomenon of official judgements of urban schools, made by the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, a semi-privatised and supposedly independent arm of government. The discussion places in question its work in raising achievement, particularly in areas of deprivation. It points to deep flaws in the operation of policy-as-numbers and high-stakes accountability, contrasting the punitive style and consequences with collaborative principles of leadership and school change. The article looks at how summative judgements gloss over the complexities of students’ lives and teachers’ work, and ignore evidence of what is actually being done to meet policy expectations. Our conclusion is that more intelligent forms of school accountability are needed which do not constantly undermine the improvement processes of urban schools and damage reputations with labels such as ‘requires improvement’ ‘special measures’ or more colloquially ‘failing school’. This ‘intelligent accountability’ might begin to support a more community-orientated moral purpose in leadership and pedagogy.