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League tables and the press ‐value added?
Author(s) -
Maw Janet
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
the curriculum journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.843
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1469-3704
pISSN - 0958-5176
DOI - 10.1080/0958517990100102
Subject(s) - league , league table , ambivalence , value (mathematics) , positive economics , sociology , political science , classical economics , psychology , economics , social psychology , mathematics , statistics , physics , astronomy
This article examines the way the national press have reported school performance and, in particular, the different strategies they adopt to compare one school with another. Though the author suggests that the press have shown a striking degree of ambivalence towards league tables, nevertheless she argues that when it has referred to them, it has frequently presented misleading and unreliable accounts of the comparative performance of schools. She concludes by arguing that, though this area is difficult and complex, different, and in some cases distorting, strategies muddy the waters of educational understanding and do not contribute to better performance by schools.