A response is made to a paper that urges the use of the Rasch model for educational assessment. This paper argues that the model is inadequate and that claims for its efficacy are exaggerated and technically weak.

This is a brief response to some of the issues raised by Gorard and Fitz in their paper, "What counts as evidence in the school choice debate?" published in the "British Educational Research Journal" v32, n6, 2006. Gorard and Fitz claim a "basic arithmetic error" (p. 807) in giving equal weighting to all LEAs (Noden, 2000). The authors would not…

Despite evidence from the USA that children in small classes of less than 20 do better academically there is still a vociferous debate about the effects of class size differences in schools, and considerable gaps in our understanding of the effects of class size differences. This article summarises results from the most complete UK analysis to…

Builds on earlier research suggesting it is fairly difficult to extrapolate current trends in school performance into the future. Explores two areas of research on school improvement which have, to date, received little attention: (1) trends in performance over time and (2) the incidence of time lagged phenomena. (BT)

Reviews existing evidence on the relationship between class size and achievement for children in their first years of schooling. Describes a large-scale longitudinal study of these children within English local education authorities. Presents results for achievement progress in literacy and mathematics during the reception year. (BT)

Demonstrates that average A/AS level results secured by English institutions from year to year are very stable. States correlations decrease substantially when account is taken of intake characteristics. Shows that predicting future value added performance from past trends is unreliable. Discusses implications of findings. (BT)

Reviews ways in which performance data are currently used within the England and Wales education systems. Uses research evidence to critique many of these uses. Presents some alternative proposals for a more rational approach. (BT)

Reviews research into class size effects from a methodological viewpoint, concentrating on various strengths and weaknesses of randomized controlled trials (RCT) and observational studies. Discusses population definitions, causation, and generally sets out criteria for valid inferences from such studies. Illustrates with new findings from data in…

Describes developments in multilevel modeling of educational and other social data. Suggests that such a technique be used for school effectiveness studies, political opinion surveys, and area-based studies. Recommends that the inherent hierarchical structure of social science data be reflected in statistical models. Argues that multilevel…