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. So, pupils sit a test and those with the highest scores get to go to grammar school. Right? Wrong. The process of securing a place at a Kent [...]
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 [...]
Towards the end of last month, the Department for Education published ‘shadow’ Attainment 8 data for 2015/16 [PDF]. This shows the impact of moving from the familiar scoring of A*-G grades – one point for grade G, up to eight points for grade A* – to the interim scale that will be used in 2016/17 [...]
Last week, we heard a lot from the government about their interest in children from ‘ordinary working families’. (For our initial take on the topic, see here and here.) In its new consultation document, the Department for Education has provided information on the GCSE grades and progress of these children – defined as those not [...]
Aficionados of DfE Statistical First Releases (SFRs) were shocked to their very core a couple of weeks ago with the revelation that the percentage of 19-year-olds qualified to Level 2 had fallen for the first time since records began. In the real world this equates to young people achieving five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C [...]
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 [...]
So, you are in Year 9 and it’s time to pick your options. (We'll leave aside whether funding constraints leave you with many options). Which science route are you going to take? Triple science or combined science? Will your GCSE grades be roughly the same whichever route you opt for? In this blogpost we look [...]
At Datalab we write about half a dozen blogposts in a typical month. Some we slave over and others we knock out in a matter of minutes, usually with one eye on the football or Paw Patrol. Being unashamed data wonks, we then pore over Google Analytics to see which of our posts have left [...]
