Evidence and Lies

At a time when the government is rightly looking to change the exam system, addressing flaws at GCSE and A Level, it is amusing to read that school improvement, justifying academies, is judged on the current diet of GCSEs and A Levels.  The government is claiming proof of success for its breakneck programme of turning secondary schools into sponsored academies as league tables appear to show these schools generating more rapid improvements in results than the overall average.  It must be possible for somebody to realise that either the exams are flawed, and therefore not worthy of being used as a measurement of success, or else they are valid, and therefore not in need of changing.