tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8888848804347928571.post6818953645141098712..comments2024-02-25T06:41:19.588+00:00Comments on Conor's Commentary: Labour's real educational achievementConor Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13457628816008082005noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8888848804347928571.post-76489603265775151232010-01-21T11:50:53.713+00:002010-01-21T11:50:53.713+00:00Actually, OldAndrew, that is just not true. If you...<i>Actually, OldAndrew, that is just not true. If you look at today's statistics http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000909/SFR01_2010.pdf at Table 5, you will see that the difference between those getting five good GCSEs (incl EM) and five good GCSEs or equivalents (incl EM) is just 2.5 percentage points.</i><br /><br />Hang on, that's averaged over all schools. Restrict it to comprehensives and it's 2.8. If my experience is generally representative then this 2.8% is disproportionately distributed into the lowest performing schools and one assumes the "bump" it gives to schools in the vicinity of 30% is going to be quite significant. And that is on top of any dumbing down in individual GCSEs.oldandrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10754487569367573087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8888848804347928571.post-57329149628730382522010-01-14T20:49:06.596+00:002010-01-14T20:49:06.596+00:00OldAndrew might have a point, since the schools wi...OldAndrew might have a point, since the schools with the most rapid ascents are just those hovering around the lower benchmark figure.<br /><br />And these schools, the Academies and City Tech Colleges, somehow got their figures rolled into the Comprehensive results, so we don't know what their 'without GCSE equivalents' scores are.<br /><br />The press release champions these schools specifically, so I wonder how that mistake happened?Glen Thomashttp://gcthomas.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8888848804347928571.post-71733712296047849642010-01-14T20:15:01.508+00:002010-01-14T20:15:01.508+00:00Undoubtedly impressive achievements, but of course...Undoubtedly impressive achievements, but of course a greater focus on floor targets and the 30% threshold at least presents a perverse incentive for schools to divert resources to a narrow segment of pupils to achieve that target... What cost to those pupils who are comfortably above the threshold, and those significantly below?<br /><br />And of course 30% achieving means 70% in a school can still miss it and yet share in floor target's success...<br /><br />Perhaps targets based on improving distributions may help?mhands1984https://www.blogger.com/profile/15664661450889733016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8888848804347928571.post-8049258765622266402010-01-13T19:15:22.285+00:002010-01-13T19:15:22.285+00:00Actually, OldAndrew, that is just not true. If you...Actually, OldAndrew, that is just not true. If you look at today's statistics http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000909/SFR01_2010.pdf at Table 5, you will see that the difference between those getting five good GCSEs (incl EM) and five good GCSEs or equivalents (incl EM) is just 2.5 percentage points. The EM measure is deliberately tougher than the any GCSE measure which was the only one used in 1997.Conor Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13457628816008082005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8888848804347928571.post-72368436506331392242010-01-13T17:31:49.123+00:002010-01-13T17:31:49.123+00:00Come off it.
The stats in 1997 were measuring som...Come off it.<br /><br />The stats in 1997 were measuring something fundamentally different to what they are measuring now. <br /><br />Back then 5A*-C GCSEs including Maths and English meant exactly that. Now it means English, maths (which has been made a lot easier by tier changes and modular courses) and one or two carefully selected vocational qualifications assessed by coursework (i.e. done by somebody else) which nevertheless are classed as equivalent to several GCSEs.<br /><br />This is just moving the goalposts.oldandrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10754487569367573087noreply@blogger.com