Choosing a school in a knowledge vacuum

The odds are that you know absolutely nothing about what improvements are produced. Of course not, you can't because there is no relevant data.

 

Which raises the question, "Why do we know so little about a matter of such great importance?" In essence, the amount of measuring that is needed to provide valid information to everybody is not being done.

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In the absence of real information it is inevitable that the void will be filled by rumour and or simplistic and false deductions from what little data there is.

 

We all know that people look at the results at the end of schooling (called variously TE Score, OP et al) and make conclusions about the "quality" of the various schools.

 

That idea is pure rubbish. It is obvious that if a school takes groups of students that are more gifted than average they should achieve superior results at the end of schooling. Prosperous private schools know this, which is why they offer scholarships to the very brightest children from other schools. Inevitably those students do very well - and the public are impressed. Unless the strength of the students on entry - the input data - is available, it is quite simply fatuous to judge a school by its output alone.

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In many countries what we call the GST is called the VAT, the Value Added Tax. The name says what it is. Tax is levied on the value that has been added to the item.