Teachers have denounced the excessive pressure government league tables place on schools to perform, claiming they drive some staff to cheat.
More children achieved the level expected for their age in key stage 2 tests in English, maths and science, according to the primary school achievement tables published by the government today.
Some 80% of 11-year-olds achieved the target of at least level 4 in English, 77% in maths and 88% in science. But five primaries were stripped of their results for breaking the rules governing the national curriculum tests, known as Sats.
Four schools had their results wiped out in all three subjects. A fifth school was stripped of its English results.
The government is coming under increasing pressure to scrap the tests. Academics at the University of Cambridge have said Sats put children under stress and headteachers threatened to boycott them in 2003.
This week the government launched a two-year pilot assessment scheme to replace Sats at age 11 and 14 with "lighter touch" maths, reading and writing tests. These will be taken when children are ready, during the key stage period.
The general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, Mick Brookes, said incidents involving cheating by staff demonstrated the extreme pressure that some schools and some teachers feel to perform to targets, which may not reflect the ability of the children in their midst.
"We need an assessment system that promotes professional integrity and this one does not," he said.
Brookes criticised ministers for failing to listen to schools' concerns: "It just seems absurd to me that the Department for Children, Schools and Families can continue ignoring the howl of protest that is coming from the whole of the education community."
Two schools that had previously been among the best primaries in England were hit by cheating allegations.
St Charles' Catholic primary in Liverpool and Brockswood primary in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, dropped to the bottom of today's tables after their results were scrapped.
St Bernadette's Roman Catholic primary in St Albans, Hertfordshire, and Springfield community primary in Hackney, London, also lost all their results and Birmingham's William Cowper primary school had its English results annulled.
Independent investigators could not identify how alterations had been made, but said "lax administrative procedures" had contributed to the problem.
A spokesman for the National Assessment Agency (NAA), which is responsible for investigating such incidents, said officials had to be sure that children's answers "represent their own unaided work" otherwise their results would be annulled or changed.
A spokeswoman for Hertfordshire county council said the NAA had found test papers had been altered. She said both Brockswood and St Bernadette's would make changes to the way future tests and examinations are carried out.
A spokesman for St Charles said the school had taken strong action to ensure that this can never happen again and it would work closely with the Local education authority to monitor next year's exams.
Both Hertfordshire county council and St Charles said the exam irregularities would not harm pupils' education.
Hackney's Learning Trust, which covers Springfield, said it was taking the matter "extremely seriously" and was conducting an internal disciplinary investigation.
A Birmingham city council spokesman said the NAA was not satisfied with the way in which pupils in one of the school's literacy groups were prepared for the writing test, and 24 pupils' results were annulled.
"As the writing test results contribute to the overall English results, the decision means that no English results can be reported for these children in the 2007 tables," he said.
The National Union of Teachers said schools were under great pressure by local authorities that have to meet central government targets.
Its general secretary, Steve Sinnott, said the tables proved primary school standards were not falling. But he attacked the "beyond repair" league table system.
"We need a system which gives parents clear information without unfairly penalising schools," he said.
The schools minister Andrew Adonis defended the government's record, saying standards in primaries had never been higher.
He said: "It is unacceptable and unnecessary for any school or teacher to cheat. Clearly, five out of over 13,000 primary schools is not at all representative of what is happening in our schools and cannot be seen as any indication of national tests causing increased pressure on teachers."