Parents rely on league tables to make judgements about the best school in their area for their child. DAN KENDRICK finds out how helpful the new value-added indicators will be.

LEAGUE tables showing which schools achieve the top grades in exams may no longer be the crucial indicators of academic success.

Schools are about to be ranked not only on what their students achieve as final grades - as current league tables show - but also on how much they improve over a period of time.

The resulting "value-added" figure is designed to give parents a better, more rounded view of schools.

The Government was preparing to go public with the system last autumn, only to be delayed by last year's A-level fiasco, when thousands of papers had to be remarked and Education Secretary Estelle Morris resigned.

In Worcestershire, value-added figures haven't been made public yet, but there are plans publish them in future.

Under the new scheme, schools whose pupils improve over a given period of time score higher than those whose grades remain level - even if they're superior.

It means a school where pupils improved from D to C grades would rank higher in the table than another school that had consistent straight-A students.

It should level the academic playing field between selective and non-selective schools, and the plans have met with approval from across Worcestershire.

"It's the most important measure to us," said Tim Keyes, headmaster at The King's School, Worcester. "It's how a student performs against his or her record, rather than against a set national level, which is the crucial indicator.

"I'm very pleased with the way last year's students performed, with nearly everyone of them finding a good university place. It isn't just their actual grades, but how well they did against what was predicted for them that was pleasing."

When value-added was being piloted among education authorities in 2001, headteachers said they supported the different measures.

At Bishop Perowne CE High School on Merrimans Hill value-added data has been used within the school as a measure for tracking individual pupils.

Former Nunnery Wood High School headteacher Alan Brodrick said the league tables didn't show whether a school achieved its potential.

"Without value-added, results can still look reasonable," he said. "But how do you know if a school's being effective?"

The league tables, which the Department for Education started to publish this year, show the overall effectiveness a school has had on a child, seeing how much progress they made, rather than if they scored straight A-stars.

The idea began when schools around the country claimed their non-selective intake policy limited what could be achieved in national performance tables. In some instances, they argued, good teaching was going unrecognised because weaker students were improving, but not hitting top grades.

However, the new league tables would highlight schools that offered the best levels of teaching, not necessarily those with the most intelligent pupils.

Other aspects include showing the success of individual teachers, giving "fair" results, even if students take different numbers of exams and allowing comparisons of average performances across the country.

At present, Worcestershire's Education Directorate uses a variety of different criteria to assess school performances - but many aren't available to the public.

"In terms of post-16 results, it would be very difficult to introduce a value-added system at the moment because of the wide range of courses that are available to students," said Danny Durant, advisor for Education at Worcestershire County Council.

"But there are value-added tables produced for earlier Key Stages and they may become more widely available in the future."

Consultations to decide the exact form of this year's league tables are continuing, and value-added seems certain to be part of the Government's plans, following a series of successful pilot schemes.

"The publication of the value-added measure will help set the results into context by showing the effort schools make towards individual progress," said a Department of Education report.

There are, of course, a number of problems with any system of judging schools' performance and value added has its share. Critics argue that the plans effectively penalise those who perform well at the start of the measured period - and, therefore, have little opportunity to improve - and ignores the fact that pupils mature at different ages.

What's more, exam results - which are clearly an important factor - could be masked by a school's relative success.

However, Worcestershire's value-added results - which seem certain to be published in the coming year, starting with Key Stages 1 and 2 - will provide parents with another indicator of the performance of Worcestershire schools.

Provided the tables accompany current league tables rather than replace them, this can only be a good thing.