Comments on: Reducing education to a single number http://www.martintod.org.uk/2009/04/07/reducing-education-to-a-single-number/ A believer in progress, material and social Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:28:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: j boulay http://www.martintod.org.uk/2009/04/07/reducing-education-to-a-single-number/comment-page-1/#comment-5532 j boulay Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:03:24 +0000 http://www.martintod.org.uk/?p=370#comment-5532 the distortion of winchester college's results has been long-standing. most students took/tak a vast number of GCSEs and A-Levels early, sometimes in November as well rather than in the summer session. the result is often that you end up with a figure for a student for league table reasons that has a student at winchester with less than 5 A-C grade GCSEs when the reality was often that he had taken 4 GCSEs, 4 AS levels and an A-Level in the summer. In my experience I was never aware of anyone getting below a C grade GCSE and yet it would not be reflected in the tables due to the above example of distortions. league tables are simply useless - you will never be able to sort out the wheat from the chaff by a simple statistical presentation. if you really want to judge schools' performances ask the top universities where their most impressive candidates are educated each year!! the distortion of winchester college’s results has been long-standing. most students took/tak a vast number of GCSEs and A-Levels early, sometimes in November as well rather than in the summer session.

the result is often that you end up with a figure for a student for league table reasons that has a student at winchester with less than 5 A-C grade GCSEs when the reality was often that he had taken 4 GCSEs, 4 AS levels and an A-Level in the summer.

In my experience I was never aware of anyone getting below a C grade GCSE and yet it would not be reflected in the tables due to the above example of distortions.

league tables are simply useless – you will never be able to sort out the wheat from the chaff by a simple statistical presentation.

if you really want to judge schools’ performances ask the top universities where their most impressive candidates are educated each year!!

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