Analysis of Ofsted inspection outcomes by school type

A report by Angel Solutions commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA). This report compares LA-maintained schools, academies, and free schools using the overall Ofsted inspection grade as its primary metric.


Summary

While there are many possible metrics to compare one school to another, the overall Ofsted inspection grade is arguably one of the most holistic, aggregating leadership, behaviour, quality of education and more into a solitary value: one of Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, or Inadequate.

This report compares LA-maintained schools, academies, and free schools using the overall Ofsted inspection grade as its primary metric.

First, we plot the distribution of schools across each inspection grade by school type with a further breakdown by phase of education, noting the impact of grade inheritance on academy and free school distributions.

Next, we trend the proportion of schools obtaining a Good or Outstanding grade by school type, including analysis by phase of education and impact of grade inheritance. We study the impact of academisation, and grade inheritance, on inspection grades compared to LA-maintained schools during the same period.

Finally, we compare the change in inspection grades for schools previously sharing the same starting grade. Again, this analysis shows the impact with and without grade inheritance.