Stories + Views: Facts & Figures

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Henry Stewart: “Making Expected progress”: A Deeply Flawed Measure

The DfE judges a secondary school to be "under-performing", and liable for direct intervention, if less than 40% of students achieve 5 GCSEs including English and Maths and if children are failing to make the expected level of progress in English and Maths. The use expected levels of progress sounds reasonable and I have never seen it questioned. Then idea is ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Matt Field: "Agreed, if you spend long enough you can prove and disprove anything using data. Have you ever though that that schools put their 'best' teachers with the C/D borderline students?! That the focus is on 5A*-C inc En/Ma ......"

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Henry Stewart: The Data Shows Anthony Seldon is Wrong

This week Anthony Seldon, Head of Wellington College, caused a stir by claiming that "public school students are being discriminated against" and "Positive discrimination in favour of state school people has become the hatred that dare not speak its name." There is no doubt that Seldon was reflecting a belief that seems widespread among private school parents and private schools, but ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "In October 2011, the AQA exam board issued a discussion paper suggesting a points scheme factoring in whether an A level pupil had attended a disadvantaged school. AQA suggested that all A level pupils from whatever type of ......"

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Henry Stewart: Sorry Toby But The Data Backs Suzanne

On Thursday Suzanne Moore's article "Michael Gove is destroying our school system" appeared in the Guardian's G2 section. Though reflecting a rather widely held view, this was savaged by Toby Young in the Telegraph under the title "Suzanne Moore's attack on Michael Gove is a hysterical, ill-informed rant." At Local Schools Network we’ve been checking educational data for a while ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Schools Don’t Have To Be Endured | Engaged LearningEngaged Learning: "[...] was left to Henry Stewart, posting on the Local Schools Network blog to put a more  balanced, evidence-based position forward. Stewart proved yet again that you can [...]..."

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Janet Downs: Sutton Trust Toolkit – evidence-based guidance contradicts much Government advice

Education Secretary, Michael Gove, is fond of the word “evidence-based”. But so often his policies have little grounding in actual evidence. The Sutton Trust’s Education Endowment Fund toolkit is designed to help teachers decide which teaching strategies are backed by research. So, what did the Sutton Trust find about five of the Government’s preferred strategies? Ability grouping As long ago as 2006, David Cameron ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Neil - you're correct. Politicians tend to ignore any evidence that doesn't fit with their pre-conceived ideas. In this they are supported by the media when the editors endorse these same ideas. Worse, they are supported by ......"

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Henry Stewart: A Failure of Journalism

If you are going to accuse a quarter of English schools of failure, you might think to do a check on whether the facts you are using are accurate. But such a basic requirement did not seem to occur to our education journalists last week. The BBC, for instance, led its report with the claim that “almost a quarter of England’s sixth ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Neil Moffatt: "Rebecca, I have only been monitoring education news since November, so missed a lot of the DfE history (and histrionics). My LinkedIn name appears to be one of my email addresses : neil.moffatt@ntlworld.com please try it and see (I have yet ......"

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Henry Stewart: Shock! Horror! Schools do badly at measure that nobody cares about

Do Russell Group universities really require 3 'facilitating' A levels? The inclusion of  new measure, the % of students in sixth forms that achieve AAB in 'facilitating' subjects' at A level, has caused much hand wringing in the press. The BBC reported that "almost a quarter of England's sixth forms and colleges have failed to produce any pupils with the top A-level ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by libby lawson: "Henry and Janet thank you for raising this. When I think it seems that the whole world has gone completely mad I check the feelings and thoughts of those on this site and feel I am not alone...."

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Henry Stewart: Schools GCSE Data: How the Government Will Present It

This Thursday the DfE will release the detailed data on how each secondary school in England performed at GCSEs in 2012, including comparison to previous years, figures with and without GCSE equivalents and comparison by free school meal status and by (low, medium or high) performance of students at age 11. It is a remarkably useful and comprehensive set of ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Neil Moffatt: "And of course, Michael Gove was himself just that - a journalist...."

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Henry Stewart: Academies: Do the DfE Claims Stack Up?

The 2nd release of detailed school level GCSE data is due next week, on 24th January. As the government has made clear that its primary programme for school improvement is academy conversion, this information is important. It enables analysis of whether schools who become academies do better and therefore whether there is any basis to the £1 billion plus that ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Neil Moffatt: "Thanks - well said and highly pertinent. I have joined the Labour party, SEA, sent letters to my local MP, yet the process for reacting to the narrow, accountability/punitive driven nature of schools remains out of my influence. I would love ......"

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Francis Gilbert: Bristol vs Sheffield: why does a poor city do better educationally than a rich one?

I've been reading Danny Dorling's excellent book, The No-Nonsense Guide To Equality, which contains some very interesting observations about the education system in the UK. Dorling's thesis, like the authors of The Spirit Level -- Why Equality Is Better For Everyone, is that inequality makes everyone, rich and poor, unhappy and less fulfilled. He also shows that education systems which ... read more and comment →

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Francis Gilbert: Strong evidence that Labour narrowed the attainment gap but now it’s widening again…

As the year draws to a close, it’s worth looking over the educational research conducted this year. One of the best pieces of research and possibly the least publicised was the Institute for Public Policy Research’s (IPPR) report, Long Division – Closing the Attainment Gap in England’s Secondary Schools, which was published with barely a murmur in September. One has to ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rebecca Hanson: "Personally I find most people are concerned about his skills in consulting and developing his policies to be fit for purpose. I don't think those concerns are to do with hate or love...."

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