'Intractable' schools: can an Ofsted judgement prevent sustainable improvement?

Schools in England are held accountable for a variety of aspects of their performance. Ofsted routinely judges schools’ quality, using national test and examination results and these results inform performance tables which are published by the Department for Education. Ofsted classifies schools on a four-point scale and those with failing inspection outcomes (‘Inadequate’ or ‘Requires Improvement’) are urged to improve. However, a small number of schools named ‘intractable’ by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) have been classified as less than good since 2005 (Ofsted, 2017a), without this judgement leading to improvement. Recently, some head teachers have claimed that this classification acts as a barrier for change (Riall, 2017). This project aims to investigate: 1) What are the characteristics of ‘intractable’ schools? 2) Why Ofsted judgements haven’t led to improvement of these schools? Our study builds on research by the Education Policy Institute which found a negative correlation between schools with a disadvantaged intake and low prior attainment and a favourable Ofsted judgement (Hutchinson, 2016), and wider work looking at (side)effects of school inspections (Ehren, 2016). A Sequential Explanatory Mixed Methods Design (SEMMD) combining quantitative data analysis followed by qualitative case studies in sixteen schools (intractable and comparison) will be conducted. We aim to identify characteristics and patterns of change, as well as give ‘intractable’ schools a voice in the debate. Our findings will inform policy makers, researchers and practitioners about how inspections of these schools can lead to improvement