> I am sure you are well placed to ensure that there are appropriate
> discussants at the meeting to ensure that a balanced discussion ensues.
> (And the Education Section of the Society also has some "critics"
> well-known in the literature)
I dont think it is a matter of getting the right discussants as Greg
Phillpott suggests, or a matter of the quality of measures, as Harvey
Goldstein suggests.
The point being made is that these measures of educational performance are
being used as an instrument of central control. And lots of innocent
statisticians are being swept along by this illusory desire by the
government to use measures of performance as an instrument of control.
I say illusory because there is no evidence that performance indicators
control performance. All central control does is to control the indicators.
And this control of indicators typically has disfunctional affects on other
aspects of performance.
Ray Thomas, Social Sciences, Open University
Tel: 01908 679081 Fax 01908 550401
Email: [log in to unmask]
35 Passmore, Milton Keynes MK6 3DY
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