British educational trajectories from school to university: evaluating quantitative evidence in policy formulation and justification

David J Manley, Ron Johnston, Kelvyn Jones, Tony Hoare, Richard J Harris

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
416 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The increasing volume of available ‘big data’ contains great potential for public policy to be evidence-based – as long as they are properly analysed and fully appreciated. This paper examines a case where that did not happen, and as a consequence an ideological-driven policy change was supported by a poor analysis of the available data. Using the same data, analyses employing a novel procedure falsify the government’s arguments: many well-qualified students for courses in
the country’s leading universities may not be offered places there in the absence of data on their academic progress during their two years of post-secondary education.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)137-155
Number of pages19
JournalPolicy and Politics
Volume45
Issue number2
Early online date5 Apr 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2017

Keywords

  • contingency tables
  • school examination performance
  • university admissions
  • university degree performance

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