There is no escaping the verdict on Oxfordshire's schools. The county's new education director said it last week, and this week no less an authority than the Audit Commission agreed - Oxfordshire's state schools are not performing as well as they should be.

The picture is of such concern to the Audit Commission that it has lowered the otherwise highly performing county council from a four-star to a three-star authority.

One presumes that in awarding the county four stars last year, it was suggesting that schools in Oxfordshire were on the way up.

The truth, however, is that concerns about the performance of Oxfordshire schools have been around for a very long time. They have been acknowledged by county councillors in the past and much has been made of attempts to improve things, from abolishing the three-tier system in Oxford to the introduction of award schemes designed to encourage attainment.

Quite plainly, it has not been enough.

A former head of Peers School, Prof Bob Moon, writing in this week's The Oxford Times, says achieving improved results is not rocket science.

He outlines a ten-point plan of measures that he believes would improve attainment. He is right, none of what he suggests is rocket science. They are practical systems of checking progress and achievement. Worryingly, he says he is astonished by how many schools use these tools only half-heartedly.

County council leader Keith Mitchell, on the other hand, suggests that the reasons for schools in Oxfordshire not doing so well are complex. There is a difference of opinion here, and Mr Mitchell needs to explain what he means by this.

There is nothing in Prof Moon's plan that schools should not already be doing. If, as he suggests, they are doing it only half-heartedly, that implies that the same rigour is lacking in the county council's procedures for monitoring and driving performance in its schools.