Forget the evidence – I rely on anecdote, says May on grammar schools

Janet Downs's picture
 0

You can have all the evidence in the world, but headteachers have told me grammar schools are good for disadvantaged pupils.’

That was the answer given by Theresa May when asked to give evidence supporting proposals to reintroduce selection.

May was approached by a mother carrying a toddler during a walkabout in Maidenhead, the Independent reports.  Karen Wespieser asked May to explain her controversial views on grammar schools.  They had ‘a good exchange of views – with mine being slightly more evidence-based and hers being rather more anecdotal,’ Wespieser told the paper.

Wespieser is in a good position to know the evidence about the selection - she’s Head of Impact at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and has been involved in education research since 2008.

But the evidence had no influence on May.  She'd spoken to a few heads who she says have told her that selection benefits the teeny-weeny number of disadvantaged pupils who actually attend a grammar.  We don’t know who these heads are but we do know that meetings with the Department for Education’s Selective Education were dominated by representatives of the Grammar School Heads Association (GSHA).

We also know the ‘official research’ in the Tory Manifesto which claims children from ‘ordinary, working class families’ have a slightly better chance of getting into a grammar than into non-selective schools has been debunked.

Wespieser told the Independent she found it ‘very troubling’ that ‘such a weight of evidence’ criticising selection was being wafted away.

May’s pitch to lead the UK relies on her promise that the next government would be ‘strong and stable’.  But being strong doesn’t mean favouring anecdotes which confirm a mind already made up.  And being stable doesn’t mean sticking to these prejudices when presented with overwhelming evidence that discredits them.

This raises the question about who is influencing MayIf evidence doesn’t persuade her, who or what does?  Even The Spectator, whose associate editor is Toby Young, director of the taxpayer-funded New Schools Network which promotes free schools, warned readers to ‘Beware the aides of May’.  These aides include Nick Timothy, described by Private Eye as May’s ‘bearded honcho’.  It’s widely believed that Timothy is behind the grammar schools policy.  The Spectator claimed (maybe a bit tongue-in-cheek, after all, it was The Spectator), that May’s aides would be ‘the people who'll really run the new government.

May wishes to be the person to lead Brexit negotiations.  But if she dismisses evidence and appears to rely too much on unelected special advisors, then she might not be a suitable person to handle such a daunting exercise.

 

 

 

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

Be notified by email of each new post.





Add new comment

Already a member? Click here to log in before you comment. Or register with us.