Literacy standards · OECD

‘Literacy Standards in the UK – A Reality Check’ by David Philpot

Since the UN started large scale surveys of adult literacy in the developed world in the mid 90’s, politicians in all those countries that have English as their mother tongue have been at a loss to explain their appalling results. In English speaking countries around half of all adults are not sufficiently literate to cope… Continue reading ‘Literacy Standards in the UK – A Reality Check’ by David Philpot

handwriting · The Guardian · Umberto Eco

Umberto echoes my fondness for the fountain pen.

What I remember Umberto Eco for best – and, my goodness, I enjoyed The Name of the Rose – is a long-forgotten piece he wrote on the Bond novels. On reading said piece, I was amazed to see that, apart from The Spy Who Loved Me, all the others conformed to a strict structural pattern. I’d… Continue reading Umberto echoes my fondness for the fountain pen.

Michael Rosen · SATs · The Guardian

The end of SATs?

Polly Curtis reported in Friday’s Guardian that 10,000 people have signed a petition to scrap SATs.Independent and objective testing is an appropriate way of seeking to find out if pupils are successfully remembering and understanding what society wants them to be taught. Unfortunately there is little evidence that the Government’s SATs papers actually do this… Continue reading The end of SATs?

David Philpot · Evidence based · Falling standards in maths and literacy · mathematics · Sounds-Write · statistics

Vital statistics? The ‘sexy job’ of the future, says Google’s chief statistician.

What’s the future going to be in terms of preparing oneself for a worthwhile job? Is it the law, economics, politics? Not according to Hal Varian, Google’s chief statistician. For Hal, the sexy job to be doing in the next ten years is going to be statistics!In an interview with Tim Harford on Radio 4’s… Continue reading Vital statistics? The ‘sexy job’ of the future, says Google’s chief statistician.