Schools will not be held to account on summer 2020 exam data

The DfE has said it will not hold schools and colleges to account on the basis of exams and assessment data from summer 2020 and that data will not be used by others, such as Ofsted and local authorities, to hold schools and colleges to account.

In its newly published guidance on school and college accountability, it says the DfE will not be publishing school, college or multi-academy trust (MAT) level performance data based on summer 2020 tests, assessments and exams at any phase.

It will not be publishing, or sharing, school, college or MAT level accountability measures, such as Progress 8 and level 3 value added, using the summer 2020 data.

The performance tables that were due to be released in October and December 2020, and in January and March 2021, will not go ahead.

It will also not publish any institution-level qualification achievement rates in the national achievement rate tables for the 2019 to 2020 academic year.

The DfE also confirms it will not publish any national, regional, local or constituency statistics for any primary school assessments for the 2019 to 2020 academic year. This includes early years foundation stage profile; phonics; key stage 1; multiplication tables check; key stage 2; Exams and assessments

Schools and colleges will receive details of grades awarded directly from awarding organisations.

It will not run the primary, secondary or 16 to 18 school and college performance data checking exercises and will not return any pupil level or institution level data on the 2020 grades to schools and colleges.

It will not use the 2020 exams data when setting criteria in other areas, such as teaching schools, English and maths hubs and free school applications.

The DfE says that schools and colleges should not use the 2020 exams data as part of their teacher performance management process.

All those working with schools and colleges, such as Ofsted, Department for Education regional teams and local authorities, should use data from previous years when assessing school and college performance, and not the 2020 data.