Concerning high school ranking and subsequent wrangling

[Karl]

Rankings are fine....but only if the criteria used are rigorous and give more insight than a raw test score. If we are to understand the shortcomings of schools or students and have a chance to fix them we have to look beyond the superficial.

Whosoever is attempting to rank the worth of schools needs to learn basic systems analysis.... it's an Input/Output equation as you know

If they're serious about their statistical studies the FIRST thing to do is baseline the cohort's academic level at intake (a simple metric like what percentile do they fall in for academic performance) ..... which in Jamaica's case of horribly skewed primary education is the biggest determinant of outcomes at the secondary level.

After that baselining then determine the cohort's results in standardized tests..... determine the percentile results... then measure the conversion ratios or progress of the students from their baseline number. Those ratios could be negative, positive or neutral for the schools as a whole or individual students

Bang on the money!!!!

[Don1]

Is Maudib name Corey Clarke?

LOL

[Don1]

Schools that allow Math and English to be taken in 4th form are penalized.

That means atht a Student getting 8 1s in 5th form without Math/English which was acced in 4th form would NOT be in the "success" percentage.

The simple solution would be to also give the ranking with ANY 5 subjects or more passed in 5th form!

Yep it's easy for rankings to be skewed by issues like that... that's why it's imperative to look deeper