A national report card has presented a “could do better” picture of Angus schools for fourth and fifth year pupils.
Fresh data has revealed the youngsters are lagging behind national averages in crucial school years.
While the “least able young people” attained better than their virtual and national comparators, there were fewer middle and top performers in S4 and S5, according to new figures.
Council chiefs say changes to the school exams including the introduction of Curriculum For Excellence and National 4 and 5 examinations may have presented an unrealistic picture of Angus performance.
Members of Angus council’s children and learning committee were told that comparing the results of 2013/14 to previous attainment was like judging “apples and oranges” due to new benchmarks.
But councillors were given a report that admitted “there is work to be done” to achieve parity for these groups in S4.
The Scottish Government previously provided annual results for SQA certified courses with a “standards tables and charts” publication, which gave way to a new tool, Insight, this year.
While attainment has been broadly in line over the past five years, the number of pupils attaining National 5 qualifications at level 3 or higher fell from 96% in 2012 to 90% last year.
A wider picture of the gap between higher and lower achieving pupils, the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, found the county to be underperforming.
The report stated: “By the end of S4, against both our virtual comparator and nationally, we are underperforming in nearly all deciles.
“This may be attributable to the variances in curriculum models used across Scotland in the running of the first year of the National 4 and National 5 qualifications.
“We expect that as schools become more familiar with the courses and assessment criteria, these results will improve.”
Councillor Margaret Thomson challenged the results and said: “Are we going to do anything actively or just wait and see?”
Committee convener Sheena Welsh said: “I can assure you we are working hard to raise attainment across all our schools.
“We are hoping that the work over the last couple of years is going to start paying off in this session of exams that children are sitting at the moment.”