GCSEs

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Roger Titcombe: Grade Inflation

In addressing the astonishing grade inflation that has been a feature of the English education system since 1988 it is informative to consider the proportion of the normal cognitive ability distribution (percentile) that historically each grade was meant to reflect. Henry should be very familiar with these data as the school of which he is Chair of Governors is part ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Grade inflation at GCSE hasn’t been established. That's the conclusion of a recent OUCEA report which I've summarised here: http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2013/04/todays-pupils-are-aspirational-and-an-exam-system-should-motivate-not-demoralise-them-academics-concluded/..."

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Janet Downs: Parents critical of Government’s education policies, YouGov poll reveals

Despite all the hype, the Government seems to be losing the battle to persuade parents that academy status will improve education. A YouGov survey on behalf of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) found that only 14% definitely agreed that academy status would result in improvement. 55% did not while 31% said they didn’t know. Gove’s supporters might be cynical about results from ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "John - And you're absolutely correct about the wording of questions. Take this example from an ICM poll (2010) done on behalf of the National Grammar Schools Association: "Q.1 There are currently 232 state grammar schools in England and Northern ......"

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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: 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: Slow down, you move too fast, Select Committee tells Gove

The cross-party Education Select Committee welcomed the Government’s desire to reform examinations because GCSEs and the way they are run required improvement. But the Committee had serious concerns about much of the reform programme. The Government is doing too much, too fast, the Committee said. It expressed serious concern about the tight timetable leading to the implementation of the proposed exams. ... read more and comment →

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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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Roger Titcombe: Academic focus driving students to quit A Levels

This is a very important story in the Independent of 21 January about a report from the 'Policy Exchange Think Tank'.First, the facts: students that have enrolled on academic A Levels are indeed dropping out in large numbers, around a third in some parts of the country. Next, the usual wrong explanation that there is too much focus on academic studies ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Leonard James: "Patrick you do get that pretty much everyone on the ground in schools considers the observations by Ofsted to be, at best, unreliable?..."

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Henry Stewart: £1 Billion Overspent on Academy Conversion & Results Go Down

Two months ago the National Audit Office revealed an overspend of £1 billion on the academy conversion programme. This week in the Financial Times Christopher Cook described how, in addition, government errors have led to an overspend of £174m on new academies, with individual academies receiving up to £1 million extra due to the mistake. In December,at the Public Accounts Committee, ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Daz - well done for sticking to your principles. Re collaborating schools. According to the Government schools will co-operate with each other in this brave new academy world. But, as you rightly say, they won't because they're in competition. John ......"

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Julia Cushion: My state school has given me a lot more than just 11 A*s

Firstly, I apologise for the self-congratulatory title but I really am here to talk about how brilliant my school is! I am a 16 year old girl, at the start of my AS Levels. I have been going to a comprehensive school in Caerphilly, South Wales for the entirety of my secondary education, and am staying there to do my A-levels. ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by 3arn0wl: "You do credit to your school, your family and above all, to yourself. I wish you and your sister every success...."

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Henry Stewart: Seven resits for Michael Gove but none in future for students

At the Festival of Education on Saturday, Tim Brighouse contrasted Michael Gove’s policy of no resits in future for school students with the fact that Gove himself only passed his driving test at the 7th attempt. I thought Tim might be joking but this Daily Mail article confirms it (as well as revealing lots of other details you might not want ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rebecca Hanson: "Me neither. Have you thought of joining linkedin.com? There are some good discussion forums there and nobody is anonymous, so you can see what each person's background is against their post...."

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