Heads welcome ethnic minority test

Black pupils often fall behind their white peers

Suggestions that schools should take an "ethnic minority" test to check they are not failing black and Asian pupils have been welcomed by head teachers.

Under the proposals, schools would have to show how they had contributed to a pupil's performance.

I see no reason why we shouldn't indicate how children from ethnic minorities are performing

David Hart, NAHT

Reports of the proposals - in a study by a Downing Street think-tank - come as the under-achievement of some ethnic groups, notably African-Caribbean boys, is causing widespread concerns.

Official figures show that black pupils outperform or match their peers in their first years of school, but fall behind from around the age of 10.

But, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, David Hart, said any performance tables must be done on a "value added" basis, rather than based on "raw, crude" data.

"I see no reason why we shouldn't indicate how children from ethnic minorities are performing, as long as there is no inference that schools are not pursuing proper race relations measures," said Mr Hart.

"Provided we're talking about sensible, value added measures, rather than crude, raw results, I have no particular problem with it."

The leader of the Secondary Heads Association, John Dunford, said: "It does provide a good deal of extra work for schools.

"But I think it's the sort of work that has to be done because only if we have got these facts will we be able to do anything about the issue."

'Value added'

Value added league tables measure the extent of an individual child's improvement, rather than recording their bald results.

This is done by using as a base-line pupils' scores from their tests in English, maths and science taken at the end of primary school.

Progress is then measured by how much those same pupils have improved their results in the national tests at 14 and then again at 16 when they take their GCSEs.

As this tracks the progress of the same group of students it should, in theory, be a reasonable indication of how well they have been taught or, put another way, of the effectiveness of the school.

This approach was tested in some schools last year for the league tables published last November and was welcomed by teachers' unions long-concerned about the "unfairness" of the tables.