A committee of MPs has called for a shake-up in the way school performance is assessed.

In a report published on Thursday, the Commons public accounts committee recommended that external influences should be taken into account.

Government Response: Department for Education and Skills

Education minister David Miliband said:"The PAC is right to argue for more not less information for parents about school performance.

"Parents have a right to know as much as they can about how schools are doing.  We want to give them as much as we can, including the range of factors that affect how a school does. 

"We want to go even further with a new annual school profile that will be easily accessible and give parents a broader and deeper understanding of school performance.

"The profile, which is currently out for consultation, will bring together in one place a range of relevant information about how a school serves all its pupils and what it offers in terms of a broader curriculum.

"The PAC report is a valuable contribution to determining what should be within that profile."

Party Response: Liberal Democrat

Phil Willis, Liberal Democrat education spokesman, said: "The government’s criteria for judging the success of our schools remain too narrow and unfair.

"Ministers still refuse to accept that social deprivation plays a key factor in educational aspiration and achievement.

"Deprivation should not be used as an excuse for failure, but the mountain to climb for pupils and teachers working in such areas is much higher. Schools working in challenging circumstances need support and not artificial obstacles."

Forum Response: Secondary Heads Association

Dr John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said: "Performance tables are a very rough guide to the quality of schools and do a great injustice to the good work done in many places. 

"SHA is seeking a more intelligent accountability structure and national performance tables have no part to play in this. 

"There are far more effective ways of getting more and better information to parents about the contextualised performance of schools."