Ripon 2012 - pass mark?

[hermanmunster]

LOL! no of course it is just female genes.... (and their ability to grasp VR and NVR at an earlier age than boys.)


disclaimer: am female and have one child of each gender

[andy from embsay]

I've been trying to work out whether the fact the Skipton schools are single sex could affect it - but I keep coming back to the fact that they must just breed bright girls in Skippers - both areas took the top 28% of the catchment sample regardless of gender - so why would the Skipton mark drop to the same level as Ripon simply because they took the girls out?

Weird...

[hermanmunster]

Suspect it is all small numbers


Have got the number of in area passes and pass rates by gender for 09-11

2009 Boys 39/169 (23%) Girls 57/173 (33%)
2010 Boys 44/160 (27%) Gilrs 37/129 (29%) (v small number of girls)
2011 Boys 43/139 (31%) Girls 36/132 (27%)

maybe we have a 2009 again this year which, if there were boys only would lead to a lower passmark to get the 28% (an extra 8 would pass at least)

[andy from embsay]

So are we saying it's not specifically the lack of girls, but just a cohort of boys who've scored lower than usual who have in the past been masked by girls?

[hermanmunster]

Just the effect of small numbers really - compared with many areas, not many kids take the skipton exams so the score distributions are going to vary from time to time ... even more intriguing is why were there only 129 in catchment girls and 179 the year before ? the boys were around 160 both years - probably more statistical quriks..

[andy from embsay]

But why would the cut off pretty much every year be 10-20 higher in Skipton than Ripon - if it was just statistical quirks then sometimes Ripon should be higher surely? The cohort sizes are about the same (270 or so) and they take the same test. 2010 was the smallest differential I've seen at 10 (Ripon 210, Skippy 220) - other years it's 15 or even more. You'd have thought that if it was just a statistical anomaly then some years they ought to be the same and others Ripon would be higher - but until this year that's never happened (certainly as far back as the adjudication stuff in about 2006, where the differential was one of the causes of the objection, wasn't it?).

[hermanmunster]

I think the Ripon / Skipton quirk is something that defies statisticians (and explanations ) unless of course the slightly higher altitude in Skipton makes a difference?

[Snowdrops]

Even the Area Education Office (or whoever) can't (or won't ~) say why this happens!

[andy from embsay]

But this girls thing throws a whole new bag of badgers into the mix doesn't it? Although I guess you need another year or two of the Skippy/Rippy differential not being there to say conclusively "it was them girls that did it".

[janet71]

It was confirmed to me in an email for the schools admissions that the girls being omitted now from the results is the reason so many boys are now deemed eligable.