BMJ 2000;321:1467 ( 9 December )

Letters

Schools' experience of league tables should make doctors think again

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR---The BMA discussion paper Clinical Indicators (League Tables) touches on the issue of how performance indicator systems can have dysfunctional behavioural and managerial implications.1 Winston shows how this applies to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's league tables of in vitro fertilisation clinics.2 Our research looks at the dysfunctional effects of league tables in education and may be relevant to some of the issues surrounding league tables in the health sector.

We have recently reported a comparison between two systems, one with league tables (English primary schools) and one without (Scottish primary schools). In most other respects the two systems are similar. The research entailed a questionnaire survey of heads and teachers from 54 randomly selected primary schools in England and Scotland during 1999.

Some of the key findings were:

  • English schools were more likely to report concentrating on meeting their targets, at the expense of other important objectives
  • . . . [Full text of this article]
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