Superheads who do schools more harm than good
HIGHLY paid ‘superheads’ who are feted by politicians are most likely to leave behind a ‘trail of destruction’, a study warns.
It says they adopt a quick-fix approach that takes some schools up to four years to recover from.
These leaders can also cost schools as much as £2million in consultancy fees to ‘help clear up the mess’ they have caused.
They often focus their resources on older pupils to boost exam results, which damages the prospects of younger children. Other highly-rewarded leaders – who are paid 50 per cent more than the average head – make impressive claims or improve their school’s finances, but not its results.
The research from the Centre for High Performance – made up of academics from Oxford and Kingston universities – raises questions about the cult of relying on ‘big personalities’ to turn around struggling schools.
Over the years senior politicians including former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Education Secretary Michael Gove have lined up to praise ‘superheads’.
Academics analysed the impact of 411 secondary school headteachers using data that included interviews, grades and budgets over a seven-year period to 2015.
They found that the highest paid – including those who had been honoured for services to educa- tion – were often the most likely to leave behind problems after departing a school. These school leaders are paid an average of £150,000 a year.
One author of the report told The Times: ‘As they take their haloes with them, they can sometimes leave behind a trail of destruction as the miraculous improvements go into bone- crunching reverse. These heads create the illusion of improvement by cutting poor-performing students, focusing resources on final-year students and using “tough measures” to make students and teacher work harder. They woefully neglect children further down the school, exhaust the teachers and do little for the community.’
The study identified five types of leaders – but only one category was truly effective. These heads were dubbed ‘architects’, who on average had the least experience in the classroom. ‘They are visionary, unsung heroes,’ the report says.
‘Stewards, rather than leaders who are more concerned with the legacy they leave than how things look whilst they’re there.’
The report added: ‘We found leaders who talk a good game, but have no impact; leaders who make everything look great while they’re there, but everything falls apart after they leave;
‘Talk a good game’
and leaders who improve schools’ long-term financial performance, but exam results stay the same.’
Heads categorised as ‘surgeons’ adopted a ‘short-termist’ approach that nevertheless saw them disproportionately awarded damehoods and knighthoods. After they left, ‘exam scores fall back to where they started, mainly because younger students have been ignored and underresourced for the previous two years’.
Leaders labelled ‘soldiers’ believed failing schools were lazy and wasting public money. ‘Accountants’ attempted to help their schools by identifying additional sources of income such as earning money out of hours from the site’s gym.
Heads dubbed ‘ philosophers’ focused on alternative teaching methods, but students ‘carry on misbehaving and parents are still not engaged’.
James Toop, chief executive of the education charity Teaching Leaders and the Future Leaders Trust, said: ‘There’s a broader question about how we use rewards recognition within education. It shouldn’t be the ones who shout loudest that get noticed.’
Prominent superheads who have fallen from grace in recent years include Jean Else, who was stripped of her damehood in February 2011.
She had been honoured in 2001 at Mr Blair’s request for transforming Whalley Range girls’ high school in Manchester and improving GCSE results. She was fired in 2006 after the Audit Commission found cash had been spent on private parties and secret payoffs to get rid of staff.
Jo Shuter was banned from teaching in 2014 after charging her school £7,000 for her 50th birthday celebrations while head of Quintin Kynaston school in St John’s Wood, North London. She also charged thousands of pounds for personal taxis.