Dundee Examination Results - Some Observations

Click on table to enlarge

Once again Grove Academy is the top-performing school in the area, according to Education Scotland figures published on Tuesday. 

These statistics are based on passes in the SQA examinations in 2001/12. 

The figures in the table shows that 27% of Grove pupils attained a grade C or above in at least five Highers, the best performance of a state school in Dundee, Angus and Fife.

Across all Dundee Secondary Schools, 9% of pupils achieved 5 or more passes in Highers at grades A-C. This was below the national average of 13% and the 11% achieved in Fife.

Exam results are useful indicators but they only tell part of the story. They tell us where our pupils have reached at their end of their schooling but not how far they have progressed since their starting level of attainment in S1 when they entered the school. So these tables don't reveal the added value of the teaching and learning at each secondary school over the years. 

I have argued for many years that the Council should collate all the statistics they hold and calculate and publish 'added value' results alongside the 'traditional' league tables. I am convinced that these results would paint a different story. 

The so called good and bad exam results correlate with income levels. School's with pupils with a low proportion of parents living in poverty, as indicated by the proportion of pupils receiving free school meals, have more pupils passing SQA exams. Conversely, school's that have a high proportion of their pupils entitled to free school meals record fewer passes at Higher level.

I think it is time the Council examined their For Fairness in Dundee strategy and came forward with measures that will help break the link between the level of income and the level of school performance.

Link to Dundee City School's Higher Examination Results
Link to the Scottish Schools Online website to read the full results for each local authority school in Scotland.

Commenting on Grove Academy's Top 20 Finish

I congratulate staff and pupils of Grove Academy for once again achieving a top twenty place from more than 300 State Secondary Schools in Scotland. 

The recent publication by the government of the league tables for schools in Scotland shows that Grove is not only the top performing school in Dundee but also within Tayside.

Without taking away from Grove's success, I do think that we should also be looking at the added value which can be attributed to the efforts of schools rather than just comparing their end of school exam results.

Grove Academy Top Dundee Comprehensive School in Herald League Tables

Congratulations to staff and pupils at Grove Academy for their position as the highest performing Dundee Comprehensive School in The Herald's League Tables of Secondary Schools in Scotland. They are comfortably placed at 37th in Scotland's top 50 performing schools. These league tables have been calculated by comparing the higher exam results from each school on the basis of S5 pupils gaining 5 or more Highers at one sitting. 19% of Grove pupils achieved passes in 5 or more Highers in the SQA examinations in May/June 2008. Without detracting from their performance, league tables like this do come with a health warning.

Brian Boyd, emeritus professor of education at Strathclyde University, quoted in The Herald today said:
“Once again, we have the annual ritual of trying to give parents information which helps them choose a school, but what we end up with is often very misleading because what league tables tend to show you is the affluence of the catchment area, ­rather than the input of the schools or the effort of the teachers. Exam results give you no indication of how much value is added. If you were trying to measure what a school does you need to measure what level a young person is when they enter the school and compare that to where they are when they leave, and exams do not do that – they give no indication of the contribution the school has made.”

For that reason, when I was Education Convener of the City Council (May 2007 - April 2009, I encouraged the Directorate to work with our schools to collect the data to also publish 'valued added' tables that can measure the difference between a pupil's starting points on entry into primary one and secondary year one and their exit level of attainment on leaving secondary school. Jim Collins, Director of Education, should clarify whether the Council has now collected the data to be able to publish value added tables for our schools. The new Education Convener, Liz Fordyce (SNP), should clarify whether she is willing to publish these results.