Dear Ian

I'm an almost retired lecturer/researcher, who's spent some time looking at
secondary school performance indicators, and come up with the conclusion
that they're a load of junk. The differences between pupils in the same
class far exceed the differences that the teacher can make to that class, so
how will you ever know how much the teacher can "add to the value" of the
child's attainment.

Most researchers use a sort of Analysis of Variance, but the pre-requisites
for this are that children are randomly distributed between classes and are
independent (i.e. they have no interaction with one another), but this is
not true in schools. My conclusion is that the whole thing is a waste of
time and money. I'm upset to think that these processes are now being used
in primary schools too. Thank goodness I'm retiring!

A resume of my objections can be found on the Educationline website at

http://gps.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ucs/brs_engine_v1

I wish you the best of success.

Bob


Bob Sparkes
Lecturer, Education Dept
Pathfoot A27, ext 7626

> ----------
> From: 	MrGrimshaw[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To: 	[log in to unmask]
> Sent: 	24 November 1999 16:35
> To: 	[log in to unmask]
> Subject: 	Research into targets setting and standardised scoring
> 
> I am a new user to lis-ed, and not too sure how it works or what to
> expect. I 
> am investigating aspects of target setting and standardised scoring
> systems 
> applicable to Primary age d children's writing. This is part of my MA
> thesis 
> work. Anyone interested in the above, or in the trials and tribulations of
> 
> writing a thesis is very welcome to `talk' to me.
> Regards,
> Ian Grimshaw
> 
> 


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