Is there some contest at the BBC right now? "Who can destroy the Beeb's credibility the quickest?"

Headline: Set 'can make pupils feel thick'

Naturally, someone not reading in depth will take a clear message away from that. Setting is bad. If you read on you discover that the BBC like to spin towards the apocalyptic.

Three subjects, maths, english, science. Three levels of ability, nerds, amateurs and thickos. In all the three subjects it is clear that majority favour setting. In two of the subjects, this is universal across the levels of ability. Only in one subject, does one level of ability vote against setting.

And even then it isn't clear by how much. 44% of the maths thickos say they still prefer setting. How many don't like it? We're not told. It isn't clear what percentage are indifferent so we cannot know how many are against setting. Given that 14% are indifferent overall. If we applied that to the maths thickos, then that means 42% are against. That's still the minority. Of course, we don't know, but we can see there is probably very little in it.

The conclusion: setting is good. Most kids prefer setting.

Not that the Beeb will ever let you believe it if they can help it. It doesn't fit their world view of malignant nihilism.

__________________
2 good 2 need 4 engines

What the heck is setting? Is this something to do with set theory, or some Britishism I never heard before?

__________________
Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

it is streaming.

Doesn't help. Define the term, please.

Fred

__________________
"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

It's putting kids in classes according to ability.

__________________
2 good 2 need 4 engines

From the context of the article, it seems to be grouping students by ability. So, say, for a single grade, you've got the "advanced" math class, the normal math class, and the "behind" math class.

I've seen this done to some degree in some schools I went to, though I don't really think it was handled well when they actually did such splits.

I believe that would be called "tracking" in American schools. There were at least two tracks, possibly three, in some of my schools (way back when). Typically they were college-bound, standard, and remedial levels.

Some schools now offer AP (advanced placement) courses that earn college credit, or at least allow the student to skip introductory-level courses in college.

__________________
Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

Yep. My junior-year history course was taught at the high school, but we got credit for it through a local community college, and that would transfer to most universities. My senior-year calculus and english courses were also geared, more or less, toward the AP exams for each, which can get you college credit. That made for a very relaxing last year-and-a-half of college, since I had 15-20 credit hours I didn't need to take.

Dang, when I first read the headline, I thought the god Set was making peoples eyeballs feel abnomally thick. And I though Ra was going to have to open up a can of whoop%$^ on him.

Shame its not, 'cause that would have been cool.

(cheers) Our god's the fun god! Our god's the sun god! Ra Ra Ra!

__________________
Carl Matherly

Offical Battlestar Galactica Apologist

Named Time Magazine's 2006 "Person of the Year"

It's not just the BBC news online spin that's declined in standard, it's the quality of writing overall. I just read this:

Ignoring the missing word for a moment, that's the sort of standard I'd expect from a 13 year old in an essay.

I'm getting less and less inclined to read it as a reliable news source. Buck up, beeb.

Eyeballs was my first thought, too. I got about 1/3 the way through the article, and thought, "Wait, what about eyeballs?" That was just before I realized glom's use of pupil.