They use the same "triage" system with child poverty. All of the resource is spent on nudging those just below the poverty line to just above the line. Those who are at the bottom are ignored as it would take up too much resource to move them out of poverty.
Richard- quite right.
It's one of the reasons Sure Start has been a fiasco. That's concentrated on triage cases and actually made things WORSE for those at the bottom.
>>Take for example this fairly typical report from Times Educational Supplement
Don't place reliance on SATS, at least at end of junior school stage. I've watched the tests being administered in one and if it wasn't illegal assistance, it was darned close.
And that's not an isolated incident: there's been furrowed-brow discussion of the apparent lack of expected progress between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3, and what secondary schools should do about it. The fact is, if Key Stage 2 results are inflated then it's going to look as if they haven't done enough at the next stage.
Then there's loads of consultants employed to process and analyse the data, and make policy recommendations. Garbage in, garbage out.
Commenting by HaloScan
