Medway Test Analysis for 2019 Admission: Review fails Medway children again

 Please note that nothing in this article is relevant to admission to Kent grammar schools. 

The Review procedure is explained in full here. You will find additional information in the relevant article for 2018 entry here and below, information about appeals and the practices of individual schools. You will find success rates at appeal for previous years here.  

The 202 families who went to Review started by filling in a form requiring them to set out their reasons why their child was of grammar school ability, often at great length and creating considerable emotional stress. However, although these forms were presented to the Review Panel of headteachers, they  completely ignored all submissions under instruction from the Council which rules it is no part of what is called an 'academic process'. Instead decisions were made on an assessment of work submitted by the schools, usually chosen by them with great care to put the child in the best light. This work apparently proved so poor that almost no further children were considered worthy of a grammar school place, even though the Panel was charged with finding up to 67 from Medway alone who met the standard! 

The Medway Council website clearly outlines the consequences of an unsuccessful Review for a subsequent Independent Appeal Panel to apply : If your child's test has been reviewed:Where a local review has taken place, the panel must only consider whether the child’s review was carried out in a fair, consistent and objective way. If there's evidence that this isn't the case, the panel must follow the process above. So, only if the Review is demonstrably unfair, inconsistent or subjective can an Appeal Panel consider other matters.  As can be seen below, the policy of each school’s Independent Appeal Panel, guided by the school, varies and could change again for 2019, often influenced by demand for places. You will find the pattern and level of demand for 2018 admissions and appeal outcomes here.  

For the first time in fourteen years advising families, I have no idea whatsoever what policy a school will follow with regard to unsuccessful Review matters or indeed any other matter relating to school appeals in 2019. There is no mention of the issue on the school’s Appeals Guidance, although the subject of Review is referred in several places and it states falsely that: ‘This process will identify (equivalent of 2% of the Medway cohort) students who will then be assessed as suitable for a Medway Grammar school’. 

I have also monitored outcomes from the Kent Test over the same period, but there is no similar pattern in either factor – unsurprising as Multiple Choice Tests are designed to remove the latter bias through the age standardisation process. However, what the Kent test shows is that girls tend to perform better in English and boys in mathematics, which cancel each other out.    

If all three tests were properly age standardised then there should be little variation in outcomes through the year. However, the English Test is not a multiple choice assessment, instead being designed by local schoolteachers removing the facility to be able to standardise in the same way.  This is likely to be one reason for the irregularities, with older children more mature and able to respond to literacy questions. The other is that the Medway Test is locally standardised taking the children from Medway alone to set the standard. The Kent Test takes a much wider national sample to compare performance against. The statistical theory of these shows the wider sample to be much more reliable.