Tag Archives: PISA

PISA: no victory for Michael Gove

Posted on December 4, 2019 by reclaimschools

Michael Gove was Education secretary when the 2012 PISA results came out. He expressed alarm that England seemed to be falling behind Shanghai and Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong. He wanted to make England a future “winner” in the … Continue reading →

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Teach like Finland – take your time

Posted on September 14, 2017 by reclaimschools

Most of our knowledge of Finnish schools comes from Pasi Sahlberg’s book Finnish Lessons. Accounts of the day to day life of teachers are hard to find, partly because of the difficulties of learning the Finnish language. Now at last … Continue reading →

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Lessons from Shanghai?

Posted on February 24, 2017 by reclaimschools

Education ministers have repeatedly used high achievement in Shanghai to accuse English schools of poor standards. A recent TES article, by a primary teacher in a school for migrants, gave a glimpse of the reality. The school is located in an … Continue reading →

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Grim up north?

Posted on December 1, 2016 by reclaimschools

In his final report as Ofsted’s chief inspector, Michael Wilshaw chose to launch again into a polemic about the poor quality of schools in the North of England. The data he used needs more serious analysis. In recent months, Wilshaw has … Continue reading →

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Developmentally informed educational excellence everywhere?

Posted on May 5, 2016 by reclaimschools

by Dr Pam Jarvis, Leeds Trinity University   At the beginning of April 2016, the Government finally accepted the overwhelming evidence against ‘baseline’ testing young children. The inadvisability of this measure was obvious to me, not only because baseline testing … Continue reading →

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An impossible curriculum: time to speak truth to power

Posted on March 6, 2016 by reclaimschools

When Michael Gove’s new curriculum for KS1 and 2 appeared, 100 education academics co-signed an open letter which exposed it as impossibly demanding. It was clear that its requirements were completely out of step with the age of the child, and … Continue reading →

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Are giant secondary schools the answer?

Posted on October 9, 2015 by reclaimschools

by Terry Wrigley The news that a shortage of school places has led to giant secondary schools provides further evidence of the chaos resulting from the Government’s failure to plan. No one can feign surprise at the growing population, but … Continue reading →

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PISA’s class size myth

Posted on February 25, 2015 by reclaimschools

More PISA myths about top-performing school systems (part 3) Analysis by Pat Thomson and Terry Wrigley  Andreas Schleicher, OECD’s director of education and skills (the man in charge of PISA), recently circulated these comments to news websites. His title was … Continue reading →

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More PISA myths about top-performing school systems

Posted on February 20, 2015 by terrywrigley

A recent article circulated by the head of PISA Andreas Schleicher claimed to dispel “7 big myths about high-performing school systems“. These include “the myth that disadvantaged pupils are doomed to do badly in school”. Expressing the issue like this … Continue reading →

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