UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Standards: what are they, what to they do, and where do they live?

Wiliam, Dylan; (2000) Standards: what are they, what to they do, and where do they live? In: Moon, Bob and Brown, Sally and Ben-Peretz, Miriam, (eds.) Routledge International Companion to Education. (pp. 351-363). Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group: London, UK. Green open access

[thumbnail of Accepted Manuscript]
Preview
Text (Accepted Manuscript)
Wiliam2000standards351.pdf - Other

Download (162kB) | Preview

Abstract

Three school districts use the same mathematics test for assessing the achievement of students at the end of a school year in order to decide whether they have made sufficient progress to move on to the next grade. In this test, a mark of 50% has traditionally been regarded as indicating that a student should be allowed to progress, and a mark of below 50% indicates that the student needs to repeat a grade. In school district A, the proportion of students achieving the notional ‘pass mark’ of 50% rose in the last year from 90% to 95%. In school district B, they have decided that a mark of 50% is not really adequate for further study, and so this year they have decided to raise the mark needed to progress to 55%, which has resulted in a situation in which the proportion of students achieving the mark necessary for progression has gone down from 90% to 80%. In school district C, due to demographic changes, there are 10% more students in the age-cohort than there were last year, and so, while the proportion of students who achieve the mark necessary for progression has not increased, the actual number of students achieving this mark has increased. In which of these school districts has the standard of mathematics achievement increased? The answer is, of course, that it depends what one means by the term ‘standard’. I

Type: Book chapter
Title: Standards: what are they, what to they do, and where do they live?
ISBN: 0-415-11814-X
ISBN-13: 9780415118149
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Publisher version: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-International-...
Additional information: This version is the author-accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1507175
Downloads since deposit
1Download
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item