this letter to the editor appeared in the sydney morning herald today:
Smoke and mirrors
The manipulative selection requirements imposed by some high schools on students wishing to study HSC advanced English (“Anger and frustration at schools’ hard line on HSC English Advanced”, July 26) are devised to make the schools look better than they are. Restricting students who are good but not exceptional will increase the percentage of students in high achievement bands in both standard and advanced HSC English. If something can be measured, it will be – and the statistics from those measurements used to bamboozle us.
- Ian Falconer, Turramurra
Smoke and mirrors
The manipulative selection requirements imposed by some high schools on students wishing to study HSC advanced English (“Anger and frustration at schools’ hard line on HSC English Advanced”, July 26) are devised to make the schools look better than they are. Restricting students who are good but not exceptional will increase the percentage of students in high achievement bands in both standard and advanced HSC English. If something can be measured, it will be – and the statistics from those measurements used to bamboozle us.
- Ian Falconer, Turramurra