{"id":4417,"date":"2013-07-30T09:14:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-30T08:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=4417"},"modified":"2013-07-30T09:14:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-30T08:14:00","slug":"ofsted-universities-and-the-baseball-umpire-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2013\/07\/30\/ofsted-universities-and-the-baseball-umpire-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Ofsted, universities, and the baseball umpire story"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent\u00a0THE<\/a> carried a story about Ofsted and university ITT courses. \u00a0It runs, ...<\/p>\n

Universities have suffered under Ofsted teacher training inspections since Michael Gove unveiled plans to increase school-based training, in what some claim is a politicised inspection regime that will cost institutions places. \u00a0Ofsted, led by chief inspector of schools Sir Michael Wilshaw, began inspections under a new framework for Initial Teacher Training (ITT) last autumn, after the education secretary had announced a major expansion of School Direct, the school-led training path, in July 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the new system, providers are rated 1 (outstanding), 2 (good), 3 (requires improvement) or 4 (inadequate). \u00a0Only providers classed as outstanding are guaranteed to keep their core allocation of student numbers for 2013-14 and 2014-15. \u00a0Figures supplied to Times Higher Education<\/em> by Ofsted show that the proportion of inspections at higher education institutions gaining an \u201coutstanding\u201d rating has fallen from 30 per cent under the old framework to 13 per cent under the new one. \u00a0However, the number of school-centred and employment-based providers rated \u201coutstanding\u201d has risen from 24 per cent under the old framework to 32 per cent under the new.<\/span><\/p>\n

One vice-chancellor, who did not wish to be named, said there were \u201cconcerns in many HEIs about the politicisation of Ofsted and whether its historic independence as Her Majesty\u2019s Inspectorate is being sustained\u201d<\/em>. \u00a0An Ofsted spokeswoman said: \u201cWe entirely refute any suggestion that our inspection judgements are driven by the government\u2019s School Direct policy or any other hidden agenda. \u00a0We report on what we find<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The last six words (my emphasis) are complete bollocks, of course; an insult to the intelligence. \u00a0It brings to mind a story as told by the great Denis Lawton<\/a> to (Baroness to be) Pauline Perry<\/a>, then chief HMI for teacher training, as she explained to a UCET committee around 1981\/2 how HMI were going to intervene in university courses for the first time [Note 1<\/em><\/strong>]. \u00a0I was priviledged to be there. \u00a0It was one of the<\/em> moments of my university life: when the stiletto of truth was skilfully slipped into the ribs of the avatar of power \u2013 although to no lasting effect, it has to be said.<\/p>\n

Lawton told the story about three baseball umpires in a Brooklyn bar, discussing how they make calls, and the perennial problem of deciding whether something is a 'Ball' or a 'Strike'.<\/p>\n

The rookie \u00a0of the three said, \"It\u2019s really a question of what happens. <\/span>I<\/span> calls \u2018em as they are.\"<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The second, an umpire of some considerable experience, said, \"Nah!\u00a0 You don\u2019t understand; it\u2019s a question of perception: \"I calls \u2018em as I sees 'em.\"<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The third, a long-in-the tooth character on the point of retirement, who had seen most things, many times, said. \u00a0\"None of you\u2019s understands. \u00a0Some of 'em is balls, some of 'em is strikes, but they ain't nothin' 'till I calls 'em.\"<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just so.<\/p>\n

Note<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

1. \u00a0HMI had long had the power to inspect teacher training courses, but there was also a long-standing Concordat with universities that this would never apply to them. \u00a0Perry (whom I liked and respected enormously), encouraged by Oliver Letwin<\/a>, and her notional boss, Education Secretary, Keith Joseph<\/a> (worth a blog or three just to himself) drove a tank through all that, and we are where we are today as a result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent\u00a0THE carried a story about Ofsted and university ITT courses. \u00a0It runs, ... Universities have suffered under Ofsted teacher training inspections since Michael Gove unveiled plans to increase school-based training, in what some claim is a politicised inspection regime...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}