This is part two of my summary of Daniel Koretz’s book Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us. Part one, How useful are tests?, is here. Part three, Why teaching to the test is so bad, is here. Validity and reliability Koretz gives the clearest and fullest explanations I’ve read of what reliability and… Read more »
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This week, the Institute of Physics have published a report on gender imbalances in certain subjects. They look at 6 A-level subjects: the typically ‘male’ ones of maths, physics and economics, and the typically ‘female’ ones of English, biology and psychology. In all six cases there are gender imbalances. The fact that girls are less… Read more »
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This is part one of my review of Daniel Koretz’s Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us. Part two, Validity and reliability, is here. Part three, Why teaching to the test is so bad, is here. I’ve recently finished reading an excellent book about assessment by Daniel Koretz, a professor of education at Harvard… Read more »
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In a few recent posts I’ve talked about the difficulties with using criteria as the sole reference point for exams. I think these difficulties can be seen very clearly with national curriculum levels, which are used as a method of criterion referencing internal assessments. National curriculum levels are going to be abolished, but it is… Read more »
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In a previous blog I looked at how hard it is to set exams based on criteria. I quoted Tim Oates: The first issue is the slippery nature of standards. Even a well-crafted statement of what you need to get an A grade can be loaded with subjectivity – even in subjects such as science. It’s… Read more »
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In a previous post I looked at the vagueness of the 2007 national curriculum and some of the problems this posed for teachers. Often, when I discuss with this people, they say one of two things: First, that the curriculum wasn’t vague on content because it believed content shouldn’t be taught – it was vague… Read more »
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A couple of weeks ago the Greater London Authority published a fascinating resource for anyone interested in London schools. It’s the GLA London Schools Atlas. The GLA have overlaid a map of London with tons of data about all the state schools in London. You can see all the schools in London and click on each… Read more »
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I was very sad to hear today that Doris Lessing had died. Doris Lessing has been my favourite author since I first read Mara and Dann when I was 15. I think The Golden Notebook is probably my favourite, but I am also very keen on the Children of Violence series, The Grass is Singing… Read more »
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I blogged recently about the difficulty of finding the right assessment system. Afterwards, in a throwaway remark on twitter, I said that finding the right assessment format was a bit like finding the right system for exchange rates – fiendishly difficult because you want one system to serve a multitude of purposes. There are other… Read more »
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In my presentation at the ARK Summit on Monday I compared the English 2007 National Curriculum in Chemistry to grade 7 (that’s year 8) of E.D. Hirsch’s Core Knowledge Curriculum. Chemistry content in KS4 Science National Curriculum (years 10 & 11) (Link here, p. 224) Chemistry content in Grade 7 Core Knowledge Curriculum (year 8… Read more »
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