The Fine Gael education spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, has said the Department of Education's Whole School Evaluation pilot project is "a timid affair".
"Central to any process of evaluation must be the generation of meaningful measurements of performance and comparison. This pilot shuts out any such measures. It also shuts out parents from participation. It cannot be the end of this matter. It is only nibbling at the edges of a serious policy to pursue excellence in schools."
He said it was a "convenient distraction" for the Minister of State for Education, Mr Willie O'Dea, to "attack the straw man of league tables of exam results".
"There are no serious advocates of this idiosyncratic model from the Thatcher era. However, it is relevant and important to compare what progress pupils of a similar profile have made from their position at entry in different schools. There is ample evidence to show that different policies pursued by schools and different teaching methods do make a huge difference to how pupils fare."
Mr Bruton called for the setting up of an educational development agency to tackle educational disadvantage. This body should properly evaluate attendance, suspensions, literacy, numeracy, accomplishment in project work and certificate examinations. It should receive £50 million in funding.
He said taxpayers and parents had a right to see target-setting and monitoring of schools going with extra resources.