Schools in Scotland - a watershed for excellence

"CfE is at a ‘watershed moment’,” according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) policy review of Scottish education.

After a decade of hard work and consensus, the implementation of Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence is almost complete, and the OECD used its report to call for a bold new phase. But what might that phase look like, and what are its priorities?

“Create a new narrative for the Curriculum for Excellence,” the OECD suggests.

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While the OECD found good equality in maths scores among “resilient” students in “inclusive” schools, against international and Scottish data numeracy standards are in decline, along with literacy, and secondary pupils are losing their sense of “belonging” to their school.

To address this, the report recommends: “Be rigorous about the gaps to be closed and pursue relentlessly ‘closing the gap’ and ‘raising the bar’ simultaneously.”
The twin hallmarks of standards and equality are not new to the Scottish education debate, and indeed, all the political parties have made pledges to tackle the persistent problems which hamper progress in both.

The Scottish Government has its two flagship ideas: a £100m Scotland Attainment Challenge which pilots methods to tackle inequity in attainment; and the new National Improvement Framework, which promises to build an evidence base for standards. 

This was much needed, if the OECD is to be believed.

“Currently, the way national assessment is constructed in Scotland does not provide sufficiently robust information at all levels of the system,” the report said.

However, proposals on national standardised testing have led to fears it could lead to a return to school league tables and ‘teaching to the test’. The OECD suggested some alternatives.
“This problem does not mean that everyone must be tested at particular year levels in order to have this information,” the report said. 

“An alternative, for example, could involve sample testing of a range of learners within each school on rich tasks which can then be used to benchmark the achievement of other learners on the curriculum.”

Education Secretary Angela Constance said the Scottish Government had “no interest” in returning to “high stakes” testing.

“This new system will help to reduce the burden of assessment, building on best practice and replacing the wide variety of approaches taken by local authorities with a new streamlined, consistent approach. Crucially, the assessments will inform teacher judgment, not replace it,” she said.

Some remain unconvinced, but both Labour and the Conservatives backed the move, defeating Liberal Democrat Liam McArthur’s attempts to derail it by 107 to 9.
Whatever the Scottish Government does implement through legislation, the OECD argues the curriculum needs to be devolved.

“CfE needs to be less managed from the centre and become more a dynamic, highly equitable curriculum being built constantly in schools, networks and communities with a strengthened ‘middle’ in a vision of collective responsibility and multi-layer governance,” the report said.

Education Scotland chief executive Dr Bill Maxwell says the agency will play its part, with the balance in the organisation shifting back from supporting the implementation of the senior phase to challenging via advice and inspection. “That will mean we move to a stronger emphasis on evaluating what is working best as schools individually and together in networks, and devise new ways of delivering the best possible learning experiences for their pupils. We will increase inspections to help gather and spread that evidence more effectively,” he wrote in a blog for the agency’s website.

At a time when local authorities are juggling diminishing resources, is the OECD’s vision of a “strengthened middle” realistic? 

Maureen McKenna, director of education for Glasgow City Council and president of the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES), says it is about more than councils.
“Successful education systems have active, strategically influential middle tiers,” she says, pointing to Canadian province Ontario as an example. Ontario is regarded as an example of prudent pedagogical spending, with targeted resources delivering impressive results.

“In Scotland, the ‘middle’ is about local authorities, national government and agencies such as Education Scotland, GTCS, working together in a more strategic, coherent way, making the best use of resources,” says McKenna.

She points to the OECD’s recommendation for “mutual support and learning across LAs together with schools and networks of schools” and a recognition of how Scotland has been successful in building consensus.

“Any improved approaches must ensure that building consensus is central,” she says.

In a new charter launched on the 29 January, ADES proposes inter-authority partnerships where groups of local authorities work together with Education Scotland.

It also said: “In such austere times, absolute clarity is required on educational policy and associated financial priorities.” So for McKenna, what does that clarity look like?
“The worst of the austerity measures are still to arrive and we are aware of a range of measures being contemplated by local authorities which will directly impact on what we call ‘the learner journey’. The consequences are looking like a very different set of experiences depending on where you live, sometimes called a postcode lottery. 

“In such times, ADES feels there’s a need for clarity and agreement on our national priorities, delivered locally. If we are all agreed that raising attainment, tackling inequalities and focusing on CfE as the delivery route, then let’s concentrate our resources and efforts there. Let’s not get manifesto commitments in education that distract energy and resources from that. Ontario focused on a few priorities and saw them through,” she says.

A major focus in Scotland, of course, has been on the attainment gap between the most and least well-off pupils. Neil Mathers, Save the Children’s Head of Scotland, welcomed the renewed focus in the recently passed education bill, and the National Improvement Framework.

“We believe legislation can be a tool to help achieve this for every child, in every part of Scotland. In particular, we want to see the National Improvement Framework working to make sure that every child is supported to read well by the time they finish primary school,” he said.

Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation last year revealed by the age of five, the gap between children in low-income and high-income households is 10-13 months, with the gap growing as the school career progresses.

Nicola Sturgeon’s Attainment Challenge looks to try out ideas pioneered in London between 2003-08. In fact, as part of a ‘city challenge’ with Greater Manchester and the Black Country, Glasgow has already been using the model since 2008. McKenna says they haven’t used the term ‘closing the gap’. 

“We recognise that there is a gap between the attainment of children living in the most deprived postcodes and those living in the least deprived postcodes in Scotland and, indeed, across the world. However, what is the gap that teachers should close – the gap between most and least deprived in their class, their school, their local authority, nationally? 

“Our approach has been to have the highest expectations for each and every child and young person in the city regardless of their socio-economic context. To do this, we have taken an unrelenting focus on improving the quality of learning and teaching in every classroom and we have continued to ensure that our children and young people achieve in the widest sense possible. Our work on developing nurture and wellbeing has been key. It is not rocket science but it is working.”

Part of this wider focus includes things like the diet of pupils. A new food policy, launched in January, means every school and nursery should establish a School Food and Nutrition Action Group (SNAG).

“Good nutrition leads to good learning,” said councillor Bailie Liz Cameron, executive member for Children, Young People and Lifelong Learning at Glasgow City Council.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government-supported local authority initiative, Literacy Hubs, saw increased focus after the results of the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) last year appeared to show standards have been dropping. However, work in local authorities such as Fife, North Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire has produced proven improvement. 

It is too early to see the results from the seven local authorities taking part in the Attainment Challenge, but it is hoped similar improvements in numeracy can be shown.

Question marks remain over the implementation of the National Improvement Framework, amid fears of “unintended consequences” including school league tables and a narrowing of the curriculum. McKenna says it must be rooted in the curriculum, as the OECD recognised.

“We will only raise attainment if there is a modern, engaging curriculum for young people to develop their talents and skills through. ADES feels that there are opportunities for planning and delivering an exciting curriculum that includes teachers working across sectors delivering languages and STEM subjects in a manner that both raises attainment and enthuses learners,” she says.

CfE’s senior phase is opening up opportunities, McKenna argues, and the National Improvement Framework is a starting point.

“We need to continue to develop it so that we continue to ensure that wider achievements are recognised. The focus on wider achievement was recognised by OECD as a major strength of the system, with the international experts regularly mentioning the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award as so impressive in Scotland.”