Comparative data.

The really important comparison is not between schools. Schools enrol widely different spectrums of ability and performance and so the crucial issue is "value added" This must be extremely difficult to assess, school against school. It seems to me that the vital issue is comparison within an individual student's year by year performance. Has the student moved a 12 month's increment of learning and ability over the last school year? If your kid has moved from the 45th percentile to the 48th percentile over the last 12 months that is a cause for rejoicing. But for this kind of comparison we would need much more reliable and valid assessments of ability. A lot more work needs to be done to establish such measures of performance. How on earth people make comparisons across different language communities and cultures amazes me.

I find it interesting that the author should comment on the grammar of trainee teachers, yet it would seem he can't use a full stop properly.

"I think this would be a laudable move. But as a university academic I mark many theses. And it is very common for masters and even doctoral thesis applicants to have difficulty with all of the tasks Labor wants emphasised."

In addition, words like "but" and "and" only really feature in imprecise "pulp" novels at the beginning of sentences.

I agree that many teachers lack skill in the fundamentals of grammar. I've worked with colleagues, senior management and lecturers who lack these skills.

Here, it would seem, is another example. Was it ironic I wonder?