Blog Posts
-
Not a level playing field! Unpacking school evaluation and the ‘performance enhancing D.R.U.G.S.’ of demographics.
Education systems worldwide often rely on high-stakes accountability measures to gauge school effectiveness. But what if the very system designed to ensure quality inadvertently penalises some schools while unfairly rewarding others? Our recent cluster analysis of school performance measures (SPMs) reveals a concerning pattern, suggesting that demographics, not just great schools, play a significant role…
-
A Seismic Shift: Why the Premium League is Rethinking Success (and what it might mean for our schools)
Breaking News from the World of Elite Football! The air crackled with anticipation. Fans around the globe, glued to their screens, watched as Commissioner Eleanor Vance stepped up to the podium. For decades, the “Premium League” had operated on a simple, immutable law: points define prestige. Accumulate the most, and you’re champions. But today, that…
-
Levelling the Playing Field? Athletics ditches categories with aim of avoiding the “quiet curse of low expectations”
In a move set to send shockwaves through the world of sport, the International Athletics Association (IAA) has today announced a radical overhaul of its competition structure, effective immediately. Following a landmark decision, the IAA will no longer publish separate performance categories based on gender or disability, arguing that such distinctions perpetuate a “quiet curse…
-
Ofsted headline grades ‘scrapped’ – some initial reflections
For anyone with an interest in school accountability for in England, the last few days have been fascinating. There has been such a lot to get our head around. The ‘scrapping’ of single headline Ofsted grades for schools with immediate effect, the publication of the independent learning review which was conducted by Dame Christine Gilbert…
-
What are school ‘performance’ measures really measuring?
This blogpost summarises a discussion paper written for the 2024 Data for Policy Conference. The full discussion paper can be found here: https://zenodo.org/records/11655853 Secondary school performance measures play a central role in schools’ policy. They have an impact on parental choice, funding, the high stakes inspection process and the triggering of interventions. As such, they…
-
COVID-19 related deaths and deprivation
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic data has been published of various metrics related to the virus, its spread and its impact on the population. Numerous studies have raised questions about the manner in which the impact of the spread of the virus has disproportionately affected groups in society. In this study I explored the relationship between…
-
Exploring the purpose and value of museums
Observing the number of museums, their diversity, differences, similarities and changes over time raises an important series of questions. Why do we have museums? What are they for and what value do they have? How might the value of museums be measured or captured? Working from these initial questions I designed and conducted qualitative research…
-
Relationship between KS2APS and Progress 8
Progress 8 is a secondary school performance measure, designed to compare all of a schools’ pupils’ results with those of other pupils with a similar prior attainment. (Department for Education (DfE), 2016). Since Progress 8 was an attempt to address the perceived unfairness of the use of threshold measures, I wanted to explore the nature…
Got any comments?