Head teachers’ perceptions of secondary school rankings: their nature, media coverage, and impact on schools and the educational arena

Abstract

This article begins by noting the significant role played by school rankings in the progressive transformation of the educational arena into a quasi-market. To better understand how schools deal with this situation, we interviewed head teachers of secondary schools. To increase sample diversity, we conducted interviews in public and private schools located in opposite extremes of the Portuguese schools ranking. The data show that, while agreeing that rankings provide a simplistic account of school work, head teachers of all schools find themselves engaged in an inescapable competition spiked by the pressure generated by media coverage. This impacts schools in several ways, including manipulation of the school’s position in the rankings, parental demand and staff frustration. Finally, rankings and the associated competition reinforce the divide between public and private schools.