exam-factories

Exam factories? The impact of accountability measures on children and young people4 The impact of accountability measures onschool leaders and teachersWhile the aim of this research was to explore the impact that accountability measures are having onchildren and young people, inevitably it also shed light on how they are affecting teachers. Teachers’excessive workload and stress levels have been well-documented elsewhere e.g. NUT (2014), TNS BMRB(2014), and Gibson et al (2015) reporting teachers’ responses to the DfE Workload Challenge. Our surveyincluded a few questions specifically about the impact of accountability measures on teachers (Figure 7).Figure 7: The impact of accountability measures on teachers: Percentage of all respondents givingeach response (N = 7,466)I am anxious about whether targets set in my appraisal whichrelate to pupil attainment are realisticI spend a disproportionate amount of time on documentationrelated to accountability rather than on planning for my lessonI am very anxious about future Ofsted inspections0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%Agree a lot Agree a little Disagree a little Disagree lotThe overwork and anxiety that teachers experience inevitably impacts on pupils. Teachers’ stress levelsare often high. In our survey, many reported enjoying their work less than they had in the past, and somesaid they were planning to leave the profession:I am totally exhausted all the time. I work 60–70 hours a week just to keep up with whatI am expected to do…. The pressure put upon teachers to provide accountability for somany factors is unmanageable and seemingly pointless. Many teachers in my workplaceare feeling permanently stressed and demoralised. More of us are looking to leave as moreand more workload is being given with no regard to its impact on teachers or the children.(KS2, ‘Outstanding’, W)Section 2 focused on perceptions of accountability structures, and reported that teachers andheadteachers felt anxious and fearful about Ofsted. The pressure felt by school leaders is in some (butnot all) schools, passed down to teachers. Many comments referred to the pressure that they wereexperiencing from school leaders:There is a real sense of fear and we are driven by SLT [the Senior Leadership Team] to workharder and harder and push the pupils harder and harder. (Secondary, ‘Outstanding’, W)Teachers are suffering/off on long-term sick leave because of their fear of the performancemanagement system. (Secondary, ‘RI’, W)When holding someone accountable, senior teachers or Ofsted will not accept the obviousreasons: social background of the pupils, recent history of the department in terms ofabsences and leadership etc. This leads to a sort of witch hunt where you may be singledout even if you have done everything that you reasonably could. (Secondary, ‘Good’, W)This is, of course, a consequence of the pressure that school leaders themselves are experiencing.When teachers are tired, over-worked and stressed, this inevitably impacts on pupils’ experience(see Section 6.2). The pressure put on teachers to achieve results may also be passed on to pupils.­32