§ Mr. McLeishTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if his Department's library has a copy of "Assessment of Achievement-Twists in the Numbers Game" published in theTimes Educational Supplement Scotland on 21 April; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Michael Forsyth[holding answer 15 May 1989]: Yes.
The assessment of achievement programme's central support unit at the Scottish Council for Research in Education, which is responsible for the sampling design and analysis of results for the 1988 assessment of achievement programme methematics project, responded in a letter to the Times Educational Supplement Scotland of 28 April 1989 rejecting the claims of bias made in the article on 21 April and emphasising, contrary to what the article suggests, that the definition of the population tested was identical for 1983 and 1988. Moreover, in The Scotsman of 25 April 1989, the director of the Scottish Council for Research in Education stated:
It would be nonsense in our view to say that there has been no drop in performance".The article to which the hon. Member refers is an unwarranted attack on the independence and integrity of reputable research organisations with proven expertise in
Scottish Central Institutions: Recurrent grants (£ million)1 1 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 11982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 Dundee Institute of Technology 4.235 4.184 4.903 4.378 5.476 5.607 5.742 25.813 26.235 26.462 6.733 Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art 3.019 2.846 3.214 3.032 3.517 3.606 3.558 3.525 3.582 3.625 3.671 Edinburgh College of Art 3.002 3.098 3.551 3.532 3.796 4.053 4.018 4.008 4.076 4.055 4.100 Glasgow College of Technology3 — — — — — — — 25.496 211.147 211.477 11.959 Glasgow School of Art 2.742 2.746 3.201 3.200 3.571 3.624 3.666 3.632 3.751 23.847 3.686 Leith Nautical College4 1.860 1.916 2.230 2.111 2.163 2.204 1.999 1.877 1.897 0.554 — Napier Polytechnic of Edinburgh3 — — — — — — — 26.920 215.830 316.166 16.856 Paisley College of Technology5 6.745 6.543 7.628 7.583 9.026 9.400 9.559 29.778 210.223 210.500 10.751 Queen's College Glasgow 2.087 2.053 2.317 2.216 2.646 2.771 2.822 2.499 2.957 2.991 3.123 Queen Margaret College 2.879 2.840 3.420 3.376 3.948 4.030 3.989 4.082 4.125 4.142 4.259 Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology 7.211 7.069 8.039 7.908 9.743 10.463 10.355 210.678 211.262 212.097 12.312 Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama 1.439 1.356 1.574 1.662 1.703 1.798 1.820 1.809 1.884 2.289 2.479 Scottish College of Textiles 1.497 1.336 1.540 1.718 1.983 2.202 2.470 2.192 2.481 22.287 2.375 404W
Colleges of Education: Recurrent grants (£ million)1 1 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–831 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 Aberdeen College of Education9 4.168 3.721 3.770 3.742 3.812 3.673 3.558 3.489 3.344 — — Callendar Park College of Education6 1.744 1.693 1.490 .667 — — — — — — — Craigie College of Education 1.735 1.524 1.505 1.411 1.443 1.332 1.346 1.351 1.421 1.469 1.628 Craiglockhart College of Education7 1.196 1.076 1.187 .507 — — — — — — — Dundee College of Education9 4.047 3.470 3.561 3.338 3.477 3.362 3.274 3.305 3.153 — — Dunfermline College of Physical Education10 1.917 1.845 2.025 1.997 2.105 2.121 2.045 2.053 2.053 — — Hamilton College of Education6 2.783 2.420 2.488 1.175 — — — — — — — Jordanhill College of Education8 10.283 9.598 10.368 11.421 13.002 12.040 11.832 11.610 11.749 10.475 10.271 Moray House College of Education 6.186 5.469 5.928 6.123 6.641 6.247 6.269 5.984 6.071 7.647 5.456 Northern College of Education — — — — — — — — — 6.360 6.339 assessment and testing. The author appears to misunderstand entirely the objectives and functions of the assessment of achievement programme.
The hon. Member, as reported in The Scotsman and the Times Educational Supplement Scotland casts aspersions on the work, reputation and uprightness of The Northern college of education and The Scottish Council for Research in Education. The facts of the situation are that the whole of the research process in the assessment of achievement programme—the design and conduct of the survey, the sampling of pupils, the administration of the tests, the marking of the tests and the analysis of the results contained in the published report—was carried out by the Northern college and the Scottish Council for Research in Education. The published report is the work of these independent institutions; it was right to alert both parents and the education community to the interim findings and to make them publicly available as soon as was practicable.