By Gavin Mackintosh-
Ofsted has continued its extended research into its inspection framework aimed at assessing the quality of education in Britain, using curriculum intent, implementation and impact. The research was commissioned by her Majesty’s Chief Inspector into the study of the curriculum. The purpose of this research was to ensure that Ofsted could assess the quality of education in a valid and reliable way.
The substance of what is taught in schools lies at the heart of the recent proposals for the new education inspection framework . In order to ensure that inspection of the quality of education is valid and reliable, Ofsted boss, Amanda Spieldman, has commissioned a major, 2-year research study into the curriculum involving the contribution of school leaders. Ofsted visited 40 schools in phase 1, 23 schools in phase 2, extending it to 64 schools in phase 3.
When you add the focus groups, reviews of inspection reports, and other methods, it is clear that this is a significant study and we can be confident in its conclusions.
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Amanda attempted to understand more about the current state of curricular thinking in schools. We found that many schools were teaching to the test and teaching a narrowed curriculum in pursuit of league table outcomes, rather than thinking about the careful sequencing of a broad range of knowledge and skills.
CURRICULUM THINKING
Ofsted said it had discovered that some schools lacked strong curricular thinking, one of the aims of Ofsted being to improve that standard. Schools that had invested in curriculum design, aimed to raise standards through the curriculum. They found schools with very different approaches to the curriculum, and some common factors that appear related to curriculum quality.
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Her department used the curriculum as the progression model of an intelligent use of assessment to inform curriculum design and retrieval of core knowledge baked into the curriculum
distributed curriculum leadership.
Ofsted’s curriculum research revealed the capability of inspectors, school leaders and teachers from across a broad range of schools can indeed have professional, in-depth conversations about curriculum intent and implementation. Crucially, the evidence also shows that inspectors were able to make valid assessments of the quality of curriculum that a school is providing. Both parties could see the distinction between intent and implementation, and inspectors could see differences in curriculum quality between schools and also between subject departments within schools.
Schools that were more focused than most schools on their curriculum design and
management provided insight into the dimensions of curriculum routinely specified by leaders as being part of the curriculum design across these schools. Included in this was local context and filling the gaps from pupils’ backgrounds focus on subject disciplines even when topics are taught.
It took into account the depth and breadth of curriculum content, and seeing the curriculum as the progression model having a clear purpose for assessment reviewing and evaluating curriculum design. It included clear curriculum leadership and ownership.
CURRICULUM INDICATORS
On the basis of these factors, a set of curriculum indicators to test whether it was possible to accurately assess curriculum quality across a range of different school types. Ofsted set ouy to trial any such curriculum indicators in a more diverse set of schools, to see whether they work in different contexts. Ofsted hypothesised the overall effects of the indicators. They concluded it would work in different school contexts without biasing against a particular type of school or pupil cohort. It would distinguish between effective and ineffective curriculum design pick up where curriculum narrowing is happening,
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