Government Scraps One-Word Ofsted Judgements for Schools

The schools inspectorate Ofsted will stop issuing single-word grades for schools with immediate effect, the Department for Education (DfE) has announced. The DfE said in a statement on Monday that the changes will “boost school standards and increase transparency for parents.” “Reductive single headline grades fail to provide a fair and accurate assessment of overall school performance across a range of areas and are supported by a minority of parents and teachers,” the department said. Previously, Ofsted provided one of four overall judgements—”outstanding,” “good,” “requires improvement,” or “inadequate”—in its overall assessment for schools. But starting this academic year, parents will see separate grades for each of the individual areas assessed: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management....