Academisation not a ‘silver bullet’ for school improvement, researchers find

Schools rated “inadequate” or “requires improvement to be good” in a series of inspections “end up in a cycle of challenging circumstances and limited improvement”, the study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, warns.

It looks at the underperformance of 580 schools, described as “stuck” schools, in England that consistently received less than good Ofsted inspection grades between 2005 to 2018.

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Researchers, from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) and University College London and the Free University of Amsterdam, found that after the initial negative Ofsted grade, the intake of a school tends to become more disadvantaged and teacher turnover increases, both of which contribute to the difficulty in reversing the negative Ofsted judgment. 

“The longer the school continues to have a less than good rating, the harder the process of school improvement becomes,” says the report.

However, the research also finds that a poor inspection judgment is only a “modest contributing factor” of “stuck” schools’ lack of improvement or decline over time.

Joining a multi-academy trust showed small positive effects for secondary schools, in relation to lower teacher turnover and a higher chance of receiving a higher rating in subsequent Ofsted inspections, the report states.

But there were no similar, positive effects for “stuck” primary schools that joined a multi-academy trust, it adds.

“These findings show, yet again, that academisation is not a silver bullet to deliver school improvement and the government should consider these results to help inform its future policies around academisation and school improvement,” the report states, highlighting plans put forward in the recent schools white paper for all schools to join a multi-academy trust by 2023.

The report offers a series of recommendations for the Department for Education and Ofsted, encouraging increased holistic support for “stuck” schools.

Recommendations include peer-to-peer guidance, and greater understanding of the impact the negative judgment can have. 

Ofsted has also been urged to revise its inspection cycle to give underperforming schools more time to implement improvements.

Jo Hutchinson, report co-author and director for social mobility and vulnerable learners at the EPI, said: “‘Stuck’ schools face many challenges such as increasing deprivation, professional isolation and very high teacher turnover. While their continuing struggle with poor inspection outcomes was not determined by these challenges, nor by the experience of receiving an adverse grading, there were nevertheless clear signs that these could make recovery more difficult. 

“While academisation has helped many secondary schools to reduce the challenges they face, having a change of head teacher made things more challenging in the short term, and for primary schools, the same benefits of academisation were not evident in our analysis.”