On 23 March the Department for Education (DfE) announced it will not publish any school- or college-level educational performance data based on tests, assessments or exams for 2020.

NAHT has been in discussion with the DfE about the need for further clarity about the approach, and we are pleased that they have now published more detail about what this means for the way school and college accountability will operate for 2019 to 2020. You can read their update here.

In summary:

Schools and colleges will not be held to account on the basis of exams and assessment data from summer 2020.

That data will not be used by others, such as Ofsted and local authorities, to hold schools and colleges to account.

The following will not be published:

• School, college or multi-academy trust (MAT) level performance data based on summer 2020 tests, assessments and exams at any phase.
• School, college or MAT level accountability measures, such as Progress 8 and level 3 value added, using the summer 2020 data.
• Institution-level qualification achievement rates in the national achievement rate tables for the 2019 to 2020 academic year.
• Any national, regional, local or constituency statistics for any primary school assessments for the 2019 to 2020 academic year.

In addition:

• The performance tables that were due to be released in October and December 2020, and in January and March 2021.
• The educational performance data from 2020 exams and assessments will not be shared with schools via Analyse School Performance, or through the ASP accredited service.
• The primary, secondary or 16 to 18 school and college performance data checking exercises will not be run.
• Schools and colleges should not use the 2020 exams data as part of their teacher performance management process.

NAHT continues to engage with the DfE and our discussions include the impact on 2021 of the huge disruption to education this year and how the use of any performance data next year can fairly reflect that.