HC Deb 01 July 2002 vol 388 cc116-9W
Mr. Gibb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many(a) pupils and (b) schools who were asked to take part in the OECD PISA survey refused to participate. [65134]

Mr. Boateng

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Nick Gibb, dated 1 July 2002: As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question concerning how many (a) pupils and (b) schools who were asked to take part in the OECD PISA survey refused to participate. (65134) The numbers of pupils and schools in England that were asked to take part in the OECD PISA survey and refused to participate are shown in Table 2.1 of "Student Achievement in England—Results in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy among 15-year-olds from the OECD PISA 2000 study", published by ONS in May 2002. The report is available for free at: http://www.statistics.gov.uld statbase/Productasp ?v Ink=8169&More=N

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps were taken to assess the educational achievements of pupils who refused to sit the OECD PISA survey tests; and whether this information was incorporated into the PISA results. [65135]

Ruth Kelly

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Nick Gibb, dated 1 July 2002: As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question concerning what steps were taken to assess the educational achievements of pupils who refused to sit the OECD PISA survey tests: and whether this information was incorporated into the PISA results.(65135) The educational achievement of pupils who refused to sit the OECD PISA survey test were not assessed for the reasons given in Section A.4 under 'Representativeness of the sample of students', in Appendix A of "Student Achievement in England—Results in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy among 15-year-olds from the OECD PISA 2000 study". This report was published by ONS in May 2002. As an alternative, test results at Key State 3 were sought directly from participating students so a comparison could be made with national statistics. However due to poor recollection by students, these data were incomplete and unreliable and therefore no comparison could he made. The report is available free at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ statbase/Product.asp?v Ink=8169&More=N

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what reasons the schools which refused to participate in the OECD PISA survey gave for their refusal. [65133]

Ruth Kelly

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Nick Gibb, dated 1 July 2002: As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question concerning what reasons the schools which refused to participate in the OECD PISA survey gave for their refusal. (65133) For each school that chose not to participate in the OECD PISA survey in England, ONS attempted to ask the reasons why. Responses from schools varied in their level of detail and so it was not possible to conduct a systematic analysis. However, the most frequently cited reasons related to the time demands the survey would place upon school staff and on the selected students.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many pupils were asked to sit the OECD PISA survey test for(a) reading, (b) mathematical and (c) scientific literacy; and how they were chosen. [65137]

Ruth Kelly

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Nick Gibb. dated 1 July 2002: As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question concerning how many pupils were asked to sit the OECD PISA survey test for (a) reading, (b) mathematical and (c) scientific literacy; and how they were chosen.(65137) Thirty-five students were randomly sampled in each participating school by ONS using lists of all students born in 1984 provided by the schools. Student sampling procedures and student response for PISA are described in Section 2.3 of Chapter 2 of "Student Achievement in England—Results in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy among 15-year-olds from the OECD PISA 2000 study" (ONS, May 2002). The survey in England assessed all 4,120 participating pupils in reading literacy. 2,292 pupils in mathematical literacy and 2,284 in scientific literacy. The subjects that pupils were assessed in were determined by which of nine PISA test booklets had been randomly assigned to them. The report is available for free at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ statbase/Product.asp?v Ink=8169&More=N

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on what basis schools were selected for inclusion in the OECD PISA survey; and how replacement schools were selected. [65129]

Ruth Kelly

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Nick Gibb, dated 1 July 2002: As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question concerning on what basis schools were selected for inclusion in the OECD PISA survey; and how replacement schools were selected. (65129) Section 2.3 of Chapter 2 of "Student Achievement in England—Results in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy among 15-year-olds from the OECD PISA 2000 study", (ONS, May 2002) outlines how schools were randomly sampled for the OECD PISA survey in England and describes the steps taken to represent the different types of schools in the correct proportions. For each school that was selected to take part, two potential replacement schools had been identified. Appendix A of this report describes the sampling procedures for replacement schools, which were designed so that the replacement schools had similar educational characteristics to the original school. The report is available for free at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ statbase/Product.asp?v I nk=8169&More=N.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the OECD's policy is regarding the inclusion of replacement schools in the OECD PISA survey. [65130]

Ruth Kelly

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Nick Gibb, dated 1 July 2002: As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question concerning the OECD's policy regarding the inclusion of replacement schools in the OECD PISA survey. (65130) The OECD's specification for sampling schools for the OECD PISA survey required that a minimum response rate of 85 per cent. be achieved. Where this response rate fell between 65 per cent. and 85 per cent., it could still be achieved by using replacement sampling in line with procedures specified by the OECD. These are outlined in Section A.2 under "Replacement Sampling" in Appendix A of the ONS report, published in May 2002: "Student Achievement in England—Results in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy among 15-year-olds from the OECD PISA 2000 study". The report is available for free at: http://www.statistics.gov.uld statbase/Product.asp?v I nk=8169&More=N.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the schools selected as replacement schools for the OECD PISA survey. [65131]

Ruth Kelly

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Nick Gibb, dated 1 July 2002: As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question concerning the list of schools selected as replacement schools for the OECD PISA survey. (65131) The Data Protection Act requires the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to honour any pledge that it makes to respondents before taking part in its surveys. Both the sampled schools and sampled pupils were assured before agreeing to co-operate that their decision to take part and the information they gave would be held in confidence by ONS. Consequently ONS cannot release the names of participating or non-responding schools or pupils.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of schools selected for the OECD PISA survey agreed to take part(a) prior to the inclusion of replacement schools and (b) after the inclusion of replacement schools; and what the minimum proportion of the originally selected schools is deemed acceptable by the OECD for inclusion in the international survey. [65128]

Ruth Kelly

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Nick Gibb, dated 1 July 2002: As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your question concerning what proportion of schools selected for the OECD PISA survey agreed to take part (a) prior to the inclusion of replacement schools and (b) after the inclusion of replacement schools; and what the minimum proportion of the originally selected schools is deemed acceptable by the OECD for inclusion in the international survey. [65128] The numbers of schools in England that were selected for PISA and agreed to take part (a) prior to the inclusion of replacement schools and (b) after the inclusion of replacement schools are shown in Table 2.1 of "Student Achievement in England—Results in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy among 15-year-olds from the OECD PISA 2000 study", published by ONS in May 2002. The corresponding response rates calculated by the OECD are (a) 59% and (b) 82% These fall below the response rates required by OECD for all participating countries of 65% and 85% respectively. The OECD therefore reviewed which schools had taken part and found that their profile of GCSE exam results was not statistically significantly different from that of all schools in England. An international review panel of experts that was established for this purpose by the OECD therefore concluded that low response from schools had not distorted English or UK results. Further details of this review can be found in Section A.4 under 'Representativeness of the sample of schools', in Appendix A of "Student Achievement in England—Results in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy among 15-year-olds from the OECD PISA 2000 study", published by ONS in May 2002. The report is available for free at: hup://www.statistics.gov.uk/ statbase/Product. asp?v Ink=8169&More=N

Projected population for London and rest of England
Projected population change
Projected population (thousands) 2002–07 2007–12
Age 2002 2007 2012 Thousands Percentage Thousands Percentage
London
45–49 455.8 561.2 638.1 105.4 23.1 76.9 13.7
50–54 414.0 434.1 532.9 20.1 4.9 98.8 22.8
55–59 372.0 388.3 406.8 16.3 4.4 18.5 4.8

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