Yellis and the Fischer Family Trust

[mark]

Manglement haven't slept for 10 days bless 'em coz they need to collate data and produce some stats. The two sources of data are Yellis and Fischer Family Trust.

Does anyone know of anything that might ease the burden, hopefully introduce a bit of automation? Currently we're doing it all by hand.

[GrumbleDook]

It is possible to cobble together import spreadsheets for FFT into SIMS.net ... which lets you fiddle with things in Performance Analysis

We tend to do it manually anyway (thankfully we have a Maths AST who is fantastic on stats) via excel ...

Pupil Achievement Tracker is another method some people use too ..

[mark]

Import into sims.net would be fantastic. Our Deputy doesn't seem to know what he wants out of it yet.

Thanks for that - i'll go look it up

[mark]

I think I've sen that Pupil tracker before. will make further enquiries tomorrow.

The whole process seems very 'innaccurate'. Why isn't there a solid set of data that all sources integrate seamlessly with? The Yellis data I looked at today was a complete mess. Looked like it had been scanned in, with all the innacuracies left. I know nothing much about all this data and its uses but wonder at it's validity.

[GrumbleDook]

All statistical data on pupil abilities should be treated with due concern for inaccuracies. They are rife and you should remember that only by doing analysis of historical exam answers (Pupil tracker does this ... breaks down what student got what anser correct) can you look at trends in your school.

It also really depends on what you want to do with the data.

It boils down to 3 areas.

Predictions and targets of students
Tracking student performance
Tracking teacher performance.

The SSAT deliver seminars on the use of data every so often. I missed the last bunch will be booking myself onto the next available course.

The Jesson method is doing the rounds at the moment and there is some tension between FFT information and the Jesson method. We only use FFT data here at the moment but we will be loking at other areas to use as well.

There is also nothing to be gained by looking at only one area of data or at one chunk of data ... the more information you have the more of a rounded picture you get.

We are trying to get all the information we can and fit it into a model that works for us and so our data is a bit of a mess at the moment ... something the Ofsted picked us up on and told us we have to have a greater sense of urgency over. They expect you to be able to look at your PANDA and produce data to show that you are aware of any concerns or sucesses and point out what you are doing to imporve or replicate things.

Data has now become the big stick to hit schools with ... contextual value added being a very important strain of that.

I have reservations about CVA ... it compares you with like for like schools ... which means that there will always be someone at the bottom. Even if all schools were to get 90% A*-C or higher, then there would be some schools in the bottom 1% ... and they would be harrassed over their CVA.

Fair? It is for those schools that are striving hard and making the improvements and should not be compared to other schools in the county but schools across the country with similar intake and conditions ... but not fair for those at the very top or very bottom.