Now you see it, now you don't: School effectiveness as conjuring?

Gorard, S.

doi:10.7227/rie.86.4

Now you see it, now you don't: School effectiveness as conjuring?

Gorard, S.

Authors

Professor Stephen Gorard s.a.c.gorard@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

This paper considers the contextualised value-added scores of all secondary schools in one LEA in England over five years. It shows that only 2 out of 30 schools had a consistent run of either positive or negative value-added scores, and that this number is no more than would be expected by chance even if the scores were meaningless. Value-added results may seem more impressive and more consistent than this to some observers because they are, probably inadvertently, presented after the event as a kind of conjuring trick. But if this kind of ‘school effect’ is as transitory as this case study of one authority suggests, then it is not something that can form an ethical basis for policy or practice decisions. Until the situation is much clearer, parents should not be encouraged to choose, nor inspectors to judge, schools on this basis.

Citation

Gorard, S. (2011). Now you see it, now you don't: School effectiveness as conjuring?. Research in Education, 86, 39-45. https://doi.org/10.7227/rie.86.4

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Nov 1, 2011
Deposit Date	Apr 30, 2013
Publicly Available Date	Apr 10, 2014
Journal	Review of Research in Education
Print ISSN	0034-5237
Electronic ISSN	2050-4608
Publisher	SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	86
Pages	39-45
DOI	https://doi.org/10.7227/rie.86.4
Keywords	Secondary schools, Value-added scores, School effectiveness.