What can Examinations Contribute to School Evaluation?

School effectiveness research argues that examination results must be interpreted in terms of pupil ability at intake before being meaningfully compared across schools. But this presupposes that ability tests and examinations are valid and reliable measures of pupil performance whereas considerable evidence suggests they are not. Furthermore such measures, even if accurate, tell us little about how to improve schools, particularly curriculum and pedagogy. The final section of the paper discusses an approach to a more school‐based and hence potentially more useful form of evaluation.