Stories + Views: International comparisons

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Janet Downs: Are Gove’s “bespoke” reforms turning to rags?

“Last month the Government published a schools white paper that so precisely addresses the key lessons of Pisa 2009 that it could easily be mistaken for a bespoke response to it.” So said Michael Gove, education secretary, in a TES article published shortly after the publication of the 2009 PISA* results which were hailed as proof that the UK education ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rebecca Hanson: "It would be more healthy if you constructively criticised my point rather than trying to destroy my right to make it by labeling me as being insane and therefore unqualified to comment Morten. In doing so you are precisely replicating the ......"

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Henry Stewart: Singapore and South Korea look to the future, while Michael Gove looks to the past

How should education systems prepare students for an uncertain future? This question is addressed in the Learning Curve, last week's report from Pearson. It got widespread coverage for its conclusion that  the UK is 6th in the world for educational achievement. However it also found that some of the world's most successful educational systems, especially in Asia, are moving away from ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Roger Titcombe: "Ben - There are many ways of measuring the effectiveness of schools, but I agree that some hard data on attainment and progression of pupils is essential. In Hackney, all pupils take the GL Assessment Cognitive Ability Test (CAT) in ......"

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Janet Downs: Keep a sense of proportion about PISA tests, says Cambridge Professor on Chilean TV

Beyond PISA panic, high stakes testing, a narrow curriculum and school privatisation: Chile is the latest in a growing list of countries eager to learn from the Cambridge Primary Review Professor Robin Alexander, director of the Cambrjdge Primary Review, recently met Chile's Minister of Education in Santiago and gave an extended television interview introduced by the Chair of the Senate Education ... read more and comment →

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Janet Downs: There’s no magic bullet to raising educational performance, says EIU report

Number-crunching by the EIU found that when results of three international tests PISA (reading, maths, science), TIMSS (maths, science) and PIRLS (reading) were combined with literacy and graduation rates the UK came sixth in the world. The report, however, is more than a database – it tries to discover the elusive qualities of high-performing school systems. The two countries listed first, ... read more and comment →

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Janet Downs: Behind the negative headlines, what did Ofsted 2012 actually say?

“More than two million taught in under-performing schools” said the Telegraph. A damning picture – but is this all Ofsted wrote? Ofsted’s annual report said that 2,293,026 children were in schools judged “not good enough” but this can only be upheld by applying the new definition of “satisfactory” (“requires improvement”) retrospectively. Schools judged “satisfactory” before the new meaning was introduced would ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Michael Dix: "The reported comments from the chief inspector tended to focus on the difference in the number of good or better schools in socially similar local authorities. What I find unacceptable is that if you use the interactive charts they have published ......"

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Janet Downs: UK is 6th in international education league – but wasn’t the UK supposed to be plummeting down the tables?

“In the last ten years, we have plummeted in the world rankings from 4th to 16th for science, 7th to 25th for literacy and 8th to 28th for maths. These are facts from which we cannot hide.” Education secretary, Michael Gove, said this in January 2011. Since then the UK statistics watchdog has expressed “concern” about Gove’s use of this data - ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by David Hartley: ""The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has done just that in The Learning Curve published by Pearson". The publication belongs to The Economist Group, half of which is owned by Pearson PLC via Financial Times. You have to remember that a lot ......"

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Melissa Benn: Mixed messages from Sweden

An interesting insight into developments in Swedish education when I participated yesterday in a seminar on Swedish free schools and their continuing impact on Britain's education, hosted by the Swedish embassy. As LSN readers will recall, Michael Gove made much of the success of Sweden’s free schools prior to the 2010 election; as Rachel Wolf, CEO of the New Schools ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Campbell Live Reflections « The Daily Blog: "[...] Also something to consider is “other evidence on free schools indicates growing social and ethnic segregation, and intensifying issues regarding admissions”  Source  [...]..."

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Janet Downs: Focus on exams at 18 and get the curriculum right first, says CBI

The question “What is education for?” should be discussed before accountability, says the CBI report First Steps: “getting curriculum reform right is vital.” It recommends a core curriculum (Maths, English, Science, Computer Science) supported by no less important “enabler” subjects. It opposes an overly-prescriptive primary curriculum and warns against a return to rote learning. The report argues that the present examination ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Ricky - thanks for the requested evidence about manufacturing output. I was pleasantly surprised that output in 2007 was so high. However, this isn't translated into employment which is the point I was attempting to make (badly): in ......"

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Janet Downs: English GCSE 2012 – changes to exam contributed to the fiasco. Gove’s proposals could result in similar disaster in rush to introduce EBCs.

In early October TES described the factors which led to the 2012 GCSE fiasco. But there were some missing. In November at the London Festival of Education, Tina Isaacs, Institute of Education (IoE), described further factors which contributed to problems with GCSE English. These included: 1 Increasing the English exam syllabi from two to three. 2 Changing the weighting of internal assessment ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Andy: "Rebecca, we have ('had' is probably more relevant following your latest intervention) an agreement not to comment on each others contributions, which I have kept to but you seem unable to do. Please do stick to the agreement. With regard ......"

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Janet Downs: The grey world of statistics – Gove’s latest speech

Students are motivated by "the pleasurable rush that comes from successful thought", education secretary, Michael Gove, told the Independent Academies Association. But he wasn’t quoting Fifty Shades of Grey - he was linking satisfaction with successful achievement. And he's right - everyone enjoys doing something well whether it’s succeeding in exams, exceeding a sporting best, or getting a soufflé to ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by James Blythe: "Easily done. Nifty it is, then...."

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