Don Ledingham’s Learning Log

The PISA results for 15 year olds were released on the 4th December.

If we are really serious about improving the performance of the lowest attaining 20% then we have to take account of some of the findings of this research.

Consider this:

Streaming at an early age tends to increase the impact of socio-economic background on student performance, PISA 2006 indicates. The earlier students were stratified into separate institutions or programmes, the stronger was the impact which the school’s average socio-economic background had on performance.Streaming at an early age tends to increase the impact of socio-economic background on student performance, PISA 2006 indicates. The earlier students were stratified into separate institutions or programmes, the stronger was the impact which the school’s average socio-economic background had on performance.

What emerges from the research is that systems can change and when they do they can have a dramatic effect upon children’s knowledge and skills. So do we have the courage and conviction to really change to meet the needs of all children - or are the forces of inertia which exist within our system too resistant to such change?

I’ll be looking at this research in more detail over the weekend.