By Gary Eason Education editor, BBC news website

Colleges say the league tables playing field is not level

Colleges have complained that the government is withholding information from news media "league tables".

Official data due out on Thursday will include pilot A-level "equivalents", which England's colleges expect will better reflect their achievements.

But the Association of Colleges says this has not been given in advance to news organisations to compile rankings.

The Department for Education said only a sample of schools was involved - which would not be in the tables.

Controversy

The new "equivalents" mean that, in performance tables, a car repair diploma for example will be worth far more than a grade A in a physics A-level: 420 points compared with 270.

A wide variety of vocational education is not counted in the tables - it is simple disregarded Maggie Scott Association of Colleges

Colleges have long been calling for such a development because they say it would mean the tables more fairly reflecting their work with students in a range of qualifications.

Last year however controversy attended the publication of similar equivalences for GCSE-level qualifications.

Apparently fearful of negative headlines, the education department has not given the pilot results in advance to news organisations.

They will be made available next Thursday when the tables appear on the DfES website.

'Disregarded'

The Association of Colleges is unhappy.

Chief executive John Brennan said in an open letter: "Parents and young people thinking about education choices post-16 should reflect that the league tables, published this week, seriously underestimate many local colleges' performance.

He said the tables only gave points for A-levels, so the "equally challenging" vocational qualifications students might study got no points at all.

"This automatically seriously depresses the A-level points score of the many colleges offering a wide range of vocational qualifications."

Nor was advanced level "value added" data available yet to show students' progress.

"The Association of Colleges believes these problems mislead parents and young people about the best choices to make post-16."

But a DfES spokesman said: "We are not withholding information.

"All pilot information - including the post-16 equivalent data - will be published together on Thursday 19 January.

"Furthermore, the data included in the equivalency pilot is based on a sample of schools and would therefore not be included in the 'league' tables produced by the media." The BBC News website had already asked for those results under the Freedom of Information Act.

The application was refused.

We were told by the Department for Education and Skills: "We believe that the release of this information would prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs as it would undermine the publication of the Achievement and Attainment Tables.

"We have considered the public interest test and feel that the pre-announced release, which allows equality of access, to be in the public interest."