This is part of a series of posts from Datalab on how the 11-plus works in practice in Kent. Find the other posts in the series here. Welcome to the first in a series of blogposts from Education Datalab on the experience of those who sit the 11-plus in Kent – determining who does, and [...]
The way the 11-plus works in Kent is akin to rolling a loaded dice, we conclude in a new research report [PDF]. We reach this conclusion because of the arbitrariness of who passes the test – coupled with the fact that several parts of the process act together to make disadvantaged children less likely to get in. Among [...]
The new government consultation on ‘ordinary working families’ is being used as the latest piece of arsenal to shore up support for grammar schools among the general public (the majority of whose children will, of course, get to attend secondary moderns). From it they conclude that the children of ordinary working families stand a good [...]
The Department for Education has published a consultation document on family incomes, pupil attainment and school attended that will either fascinate (if you are a data cruncher) or terrify you (if you are a privacy campaigner). For the first time, the records of pupils sitting in the National Pupil Database have been matched to parental [...]
In the days of five good GCSE passes all students were equal: each child would contribute a one or a zero to the school’s pass rate, though of course it was easier for a school to get a pass for some students than for others. Under Progress 8, the half a grade positive progress made by 27 [...]
In last week’s blogpost we noted that the pay of senior leaders in secondary schools appears to vary systematically according to their subject background. Here we report senior leadership pay in 2010 separately for headteachers, deputies and assistant heads, based on analysis of the School Workforce Census, and look at how it is associated with [...]
Last year the world of educational leadership research was rocked by a study, summarised in two Harvard Business Review articles (here and here), that introduced to the world the idea of ‘Surgeon’ and ‘Architect’ headteachers, among other types. The findings, if more generally true, would radically re-shape the advice we should give governing bodies about [...]
A decade ago, the proportion of 11-year-olds reaching expected standards did not vary much across the regions - except for a little place with an unfixable education system called Inner London. The lines in blue on the chart below show that most regions had just over 70% of pupils meeting the expected standard at that [...]
We recently submitted evidence to the Education Select Committee, as part of their inquiry into primary assessment. What follows is the text of our submission. A PDF copy of the submission can be found here. The role of statutory assessment in primary schools Assessment plays numerous roles in primary education. Statutory assessment should, as a minimum, ensure [...]
