Dr Becky Allen at the Summit: EBacc for the many, not the few
Secondary school leaders at the SCHOOLS NorthEast 2017 Summit were given a real-time dissection of newly released secondary schools performance tables by Dr Becky Allen, Director of the respected Education Datalab research organisation. Delegates heard that:
- The North East is the worst performing English region in terms of Progress 8, partially due to grade re-scaling.
- We are falling behind in English, Maths and Ebacc but performing well in the open slot – for reasons that are unclear.
- Relative to other slots the Ebacc is our worst performing area, with performance in modern foreign languages being particularly bad.
- Entry rates in languages are low relative to the rest of the country, with Middlesbrough, South Tyneside and Redcar having especially low rates. Even very able pupil premium children in the North East tend not to take language subjects.
Dr Allen concluded by saying that the North East now needs to have a conversation about whether language study should remain part of the standard curriculum. She added that the odds seem to be stacked against the continued inclusion of languages, given that the grading difficulty makes it the most frequently “wasted” subject on Progress 8 calculations and the significant problems that exist in recruiting language teachers.
Previously a critic of the Ebacc, Dr Allen also said she had changed her mind and now sees the merit of enforcing a more academic curriculum. She cited a number of reasons for this:
- Children’s subject choices will, unavoidably, be socially conditioned. If given free rein they may therefore make choices that are not in their long-term interests.
- The key problem with allowing low-attaining pupils to study vocational subjects is that their literacy is then not increasing while they learn. To get better at literacy, a pupil has to be in a classroom even if that means studying subjects they may not necessarily enjoy.
- Maths and English GCSEs serve as a passport to further study, with those holding them far more likely to go on to post-16 education.
- There is no evidence that the introduction of the Ebacc has negatively affected outcomes in Maths and English, as was initially feared.