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Original poster

Sutton Trust / Oxbridge / Top schools - yet more fatally flawed data

79 replies

Talkinpeece · 09/12/2018 19:02

Yet again the Sutton Trust has released a report and press blurb based on fatally flawed analysis of their own data

Here is the BBC story
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-46470838
Here is their press release
www.suttontrust.com/research-paper/access-to-advantage-university-admissions/
Here is the full report
www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/AccesstoAdvantaged.pdf

My LEA got listed as one of the ones that hardly sends any kids to Oxbridge or the Russell Group
I know this to be untrue so I checked the data.
They deem the location of pupils to be where they sit their A levels.

Southampton kids mostly do A levels in Hampshire
so Hampshire is getting the credit for bright Southampton kids

Then you look at the other LEAs that are shamed for failing their kids
and discover that many also have good 6th forms in neighbouring LEAs

so the schools are NOT failing the kids
just the Sutton Trust does not know how to read a map
again

OP posts:
titchy · 10/12/2018 07:13

But no one will have access to information about where pupils live, so all they can do is look at the schools.

Yes they do! At least the POLAR category of each postcode.

Sutton Trust is a charity btw - it doesn't receive any statutory Government funding.

Was it Sutton trust that said Knowsley sent not one child to university, omitting the fact that there was no sixth form provision in the LA?

greenlanes · 09/12/2018 23:41

I occasionally look at Sutton Trust reports for a particular piece of education sector I am interested in and have good knowledge of. Their reports are biassed. Their recommendations would often cause harm to the majority of school children to help the minority that is their focus. That cannot be an acceptable outcome yet their opinion is given a lot of weight (and funding I believe). So I am not surprised by your experience.

BubblesBuddy · 09/12/2018 23:35

They don’t appear to have good 6th forms in Southampton. Results are not that good and the schools tend to have few taking A levels. So parents seem to be choosing academic 6th forms in Hampshire.

I think this report has understood the poor prep and advice that some students receive in terms of aiming high. It is inevitable that some independent schools have huge numbers of very bright children. It’s their usp. Many of the parents are brilliant themselves and come from academic families. They also have money. They are small in number but they cluster in a few schools.

The challenge is to deliver better prep and advice in the lower reaches of the state sector where only a few children might benefit from it. And it will be just a few. The schools won’t have the expertise and won’t make much effort to get it. Funding issues and other constraints on spending and priorities mean it won’t happen. There should be grouping of schools so the cohort of bright children is bigger for mentoring and advice. But again, this takes time, effort and money.

RG universities are not that difficult to get into as a group so the obsession with Oxbridge is tiresome.

Fifthtimelucky · 09/12/2018 22:09

But no one will have access to information about where pupils live, so all they can do is look at the schools.

It is hardly surprising that Knowsley is on the list. I think it is still the case that there are no schools or colleges offering A levels in Knowsley.

Is there a similar issue with Southampton? If not, one might wonder why, if
all the Southampton schools are good, the parents of bright Southampton children feel they have to send them to 6th forms in Hampshire.