When was the golden age?
The Technical Manager
> When was the golden age?
>
> I was amused to hear the usual denigration of A level students on the
> wireless this morning. I was particularly amused that they hark back
> to the 1970s as the "golden age" after which standards began to slide.
>
> I have two reasons for this. One was that I am old enough to remember
> Rhodes Boyson and the Black Paper circus who were active in the 1970s
> denouncing the slide in standards since their (unspecified) golden
> age.
>
> The second is that Woodhead continually bleats about the "woolly
> liberal ideas of the 1960s" which apparently produced such high
> standards during the1970s.
>
There never really was a golden age for A levels as such. The ever
increasing pass mark is partially a consequence of the changing choice of
subjects that students take for A levels. Over the past 20 years the
number of students taking arts and humanities A levels have skyrocketed
whereas those taking science and maths A levels have decreased. In
general the science A levels are harder and require more studying than
the arts and humanities A levels so as a result the pass rate and the
proportion getting higher grades have increased. Also for the science and
maths A levels the results are not much different than 30 years ago.
Gareth Jones
Is there a website somewhere where one can see samples of A Level
papers from various years? I'd certainly be interested in seeing some
maths papers from this year, and from the late 80s (when I did A Level
maths) to see whether or not there has been any change.
Gareth
Jeff
government hijacked the curriculum
--
Jeff
har...@freeuk.com
"User 1951" <user...@hotmai.com> wrote in message
news:u7mmlugp4vpp3mhrp...@4ax.com...
> When was the golden age?
>
> I was amused to hear the usual denigration of A level students on the
> wireless this morning. I was particularly amused that they hark back
> to the 1970s as the "golden age" after which standards began to slide.
>
> I have two reasons for this. One was that I am old enough to remember
> Rhodes Boyson and the Black Paper circus who were active in the 1970s
> denouncing the slide in standards since their (unspecified) golden
> age.
>
> The second is that Woodhead continually bleats about the "woolly
> liberal ideas of the 1960s" which apparently produced such high
> standards during the1970s.
>
> The right really need to get your act together if they are not to
> become a laughing stock. They will not admit that "bog standard
> comprehensives" are producing excellent results and they tie
> yourselves in knots trying to assert the contrary.
> *** http://socialistteachers.tripod.com ***
>
> Includes Polly Donnison's cartoons on
> http://socialistteachers.tripod.com/cartoons.htm
>
Roger Watts
<tec...@niobiumfive.co.uk> writes
>User 1951 wrote:
>
>> When was the golden age?
>>
>> I was amused to hear the usual denigration of A level students on the
>> wireless this morning. I was particularly amused that they hark back
>> to the 1970s as the "golden age" after which standards began to slide.
>>
>> I have two reasons for this. One was that I am old enough to remember
>> Rhodes Boyson and the Black Paper circus who were active in the 1970s
>> denouncing the slide in standards since their (unspecified) golden
>> age.
>>
>> The second is that Woodhead continually bleats about the "woolly
>> liberal ideas of the 1960s" which apparently produced such high
>> standards during the1970s.
>>
>
>There never really was a golden age for A levels as such. The ever
>increasing pass mark is partially a consequence of the changing choice of
>subjects that students take for A levels. Over the past 20 years the
>number of students taking arts and humanities A levels have skyrocketed
>whereas those taking science and maths A levels have decreased. In
>general the science A levels are harder and require more studying than
>the arts and humanities A levels
Do you have some objective measure for this? The pass rate for Ancient
Greek is about 75% Grade A. Does this make Ancient Greek easy?
>so as a result the pass rate and the
>proportion getting higher grades have increased. Also for the science and
>maths A levels the results are not much different than 30 years ago.
>
As I've pointed out before, you need to be more specific in your claims.
When you say that 'science and maths A levels, the results are not much
different to 30 years ago' do you mean that, as percentages of those
taking the exams, the pass rates at the various grades are similar, or
that the numbers of pupils passing at the various grades are similar?
Compared with 30 years ago, even with the switch from science to the
arts, more pupils are taking science A levels. Maths is still the
second most taken subject after English.
--
Roger Watts
unjolly me to reply by email