Raising Schoold Standards: Academy Trust vs Local Authorities , Which One is More Reliable

Education Policy Institute has recently published a study to know how academy trusts is improving pupil's performance. That is with regards to the "internal data showing weaknesses" which David Laws, the former Liberal Democrat education minister, has once said. The study published its rankings that show comparison between local authorities and multi-academy trusts with at least five schools.

The data gathered through the studies has confirmed that despite the denial of the past governments concerning the issues of failing academies, the academy trust is the "most and least successful at improving pupil's performance, at both primary and secondary level," as noted by BBC News. It simply means that schools being ran by local councils and academy trust schools offers almost the same level of raising standards that could be beneficial to the students and eventually to the government in the future.

Another issue that has been raised, which was published by the Sutton Trust, showed how academy trust were not able to provide better education especially for disadvantage pupils, as posted by Independent. The findings are not as favorable as it was expected from it especially that a "lot of political capital has been invested" just for the academy trusts to be able to improve its school standards. That made Education Secretary Nicky Morgan consider abandoning the government plans to force all schools to become academies.

But Laws insisted that it is not the principle of academies that should be taken careD of by the government but instead the strengthening of academy chains' weak points. To him the government should not be in denial about the issue anymore and must look for a way to find a solution to the problem.

Lizzie Rowe, the Education Fellowship's chief operating officer, seconded Law's statement by saying that trusts create no magic bullets in making positive changes and improvements. The government must give it enough time to show great results.