Bizarrely - I’m in a grammar school area - the % of students getting tutoring at GS is far higher. The P8 is always highest in GS. And the higher the socio-economic the higher the P8. Having a child in GS and one in a comp - you can see what’s driving the difference - and it ain’t the teaching.
In a comprehensive school - with the full range of ability / socio-economic- it’s easy to put the blame on externals. And fair too. Up to a point. This is both true and deeply problematic- but if we only put weight on externals, we are saying what we do - in the classroom - has no impact
Here is another data point. I now teach College after 25 years at a research lab. It is a community college with a service area that includes some of the most disadvantage areas of our metropolitan area. Many of our students are first in their family to go to college and most come from blue collar backgrounds. Also many are veterans.
To engage with non-traditional students, I used to use adult language and dirty jokes and it was effective. Some of the 'roughest' students (e.g. had served time in prison) recommended my classes to their friends because they could relate to me. One guy said about my class: "Inclusivity goes beyond skin color." I made connections with people who never felt that college had a place for their kind.
As you can guess, some other students complained and the administration disciplined me for offending those students. So now my lectures are as dry, generic and inoffensive as any. Since I am forced to be 'another brick in the wall' I have little passion for teaching.
I am now working on some popular science books laced with profanity and dirty jokes. I plan on publishing a few chapters on my substack - I won't make any money but that isn't my goal. I want to write the most accurate science books that are banned from school!
I believe our ed system has crossed the tipping point and cannot be fixed, it must be replaced. In the meantime, I will pour my passion into informal science education.
What if both groups consistently do well compared to local schools with similar intake? Surely we can conclude that they are all succeeding because of what we do, at least to some extent?
We can certainly compare our schools to similar schools and that will give us some measure of our relative effectiveness. Obviously disadvantaged students doing better in our school than similar schools is good news. But if the gap between our cohorts is wide we should never be complacent and we can probably learn most from those schools were 1. the gap is narrowest and 2. Performance is +1.0 or above
Sure, but given the complexity of a school, where we conclude that whatever we are doing for the disadvantaged is also working well for everyone else, it’s a difficult call to try to change things for the disadvantaged without scuppering the remainder.
Bizarrely - I’m in a grammar school area - the % of students getting tutoring at GS is far higher. The P8 is always highest in GS. And the higher the socio-economic the higher the P8. Having a child in GS and one in a comp - you can see what’s driving the difference - and it ain’t the teaching.
For clarity (I think I can guess) what would you say was driving the difference?
In a comprehensive school - with the full range of ability / socio-economic- it’s easy to put the blame on externals. And fair too. Up to a point. This is both true and deeply problematic- but if we only put weight on externals, we are saying what we do - in the classroom - has no impact
Right, But if we're only "having an impact" on them most privileged, maybe we're not having an impact
Here is another data point. I now teach College after 25 years at a research lab. It is a community college with a service area that includes some of the most disadvantage areas of our metropolitan area. Many of our students are first in their family to go to college and most come from blue collar backgrounds. Also many are veterans.
To engage with non-traditional students, I used to use adult language and dirty jokes and it was effective. Some of the 'roughest' students (e.g. had served time in prison) recommended my classes to their friends because they could relate to me. One guy said about my class: "Inclusivity goes beyond skin color." I made connections with people who never felt that college had a place for their kind.
As you can guess, some other students complained and the administration disciplined me for offending those students. So now my lectures are as dry, generic and inoffensive as any. Since I am forced to be 'another brick in the wall' I have little passion for teaching.
I am now working on some popular science books laced with profanity and dirty jokes. I plan on publishing a few chapters on my substack - I won't make any money but that isn't my goal. I want to write the most accurate science books that are banned from school!
I believe our ed system has crossed the tipping point and cannot be fixed, it must be replaced. In the meantime, I will pour my passion into informal science education.
Pink had it right in her song:
So raise your glass if you are wrong
In all the right ways, all my underdogs
We will never be, never be anything but loud
And nitty-gritty, dirty, little freaks
What if both groups consistently do well compared to local schools with similar intake? Surely we can conclude that they are all succeeding because of what we do, at least to some extent?
We can certainly compare our schools to similar schools and that will give us some measure of our relative effectiveness. Obviously disadvantaged students doing better in our school than similar schools is good news. But if the gap between our cohorts is wide we should never be complacent and we can probably learn most from those schools were 1. the gap is narrowest and 2. Performance is +1.0 or above
Sure, but given the complexity of a school, where we conclude that whatever we are doing for the disadvantaged is also working well for everyone else, it’s a difficult call to try to change things for the disadvantaged without scuppering the remainder.
My argument is that if you change things for the most disadvantaged *everyone* benefits