DfE consultation on qualifications for 14-16 year olds and performance tables

SCORE response to the DfE consultation on qualifications for 14-16 year olds and performance tables

In this response, SCORE recommends that the government adheres to the following principles on qualifications for 14-16 year olds and performance tables: 

The Government should consider the unintended consequences of any performance measure it introduces and, in particular, the impact it may have on the range and quality of qualifications on offer to students.

A school should be required to report on what it is trying to achieve. It should be able to offer a range of qualifications appropriate to the needs of its students, regardless of whether a qualification features in a performance table.1 

A performance measure that tries to serve too many purposes is unhelpful and could run the risk of leading to perverse incentives. Performance tables should be an accountability measure for the protection of standards, to be used by schools, students, parents and local communities, as well as the Department for Education.

Qualifications are developed for a specific purpose and should be recognised and valued for what they represent. There should be no attempt to develop equivalence between qualifications that have been designed for different purposes. GCSEs, BTEC and Diplomas are not equivalent and nor should they try to be. Any such equivalencies are likely to drive down standards and the integrity of qualifications. 

Arbitrary criteria used to define whether a qualification features in the performance table should not be a proxy for what constitutes a 'good' qualification. Such a message may encourage valuable qualifications, not included in the performance table, to change arbitrarily in an attempt to meet the criteria.