City Academies

Mr. Damian Green
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what systems he has in place for measuring the effectiveness of city academies. [l10098]

Mr. Miliband
The Department for Education and Skills will monitor the performance of each Academy against the targets in its School Development Plan and against national trends for schools with similar characteristics. A wider evaluation of the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and impact of the Academies Programme is being undertaken by the University of York in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers. This exercise will run to September 2007.