For a minute I thought I was reading the daily mash

[doodab]

Study shows almost nobody in Britain believes they are more stupid than the average Briton - Home News - UK - The Independent

but it turns out to be real news.

Almost no one in Britain thinks they are less intelligent than the average British person, a study has revealed.

[mudskipper]

Let's try it

[speling bee]

Study shows almost nobody in Britain believes they are more stupid than the average Briton - Home News - UK - The Independent

but it turns out to be real news.

Maybe they all went to above average schools.

Q97 Chair: Secretary of State, we are moving to a novel, new section: quick fire questions and answers, inspired by the Twitter feed #askgove-5,000-plus wanting to interact with you. So we are going to go round each of us in fairly strict timing. If you could give us quick answers, that would be great.

Michael Gove: I will try my best.

Q98 Chair: One is: if "good" requires pupil performance to exceed the national average, and if all schools must be good, how is this mathematically possible?

Michael Gove: By getting better all the time.

Q99 Chair: So it is possible, is it?

Michael Gove: It is possible to get better all the time.

Q100 Chair: Were you better at literacy than numeracy, Secretary of State?

Michael Gove: I cannot remember.

House of Commons - Uncorrected Evidence - uc1786-i

[OwlHoot]

They're probably mostly right - There are lots of ways of being intelligent, and of being stupid.

[EternalOptimist]

They've asked all the thicko's around here to identify themselves by sticking england flags on the car windows



'Im a thicko, where do I sign ?'

[vetran]

Maybe they all went to above average schools.



House of Commons - Uncorrected Evidence - uc1786-i

Last year you earned below the national wage when the figure was released last August, You get an annual review and pay rise in January, you are now earning above the average wage. The new Average wage is published in August it is higher and your wage is now below it, next January you expect a review and to get a pay rise that puts you above the average wage.

at the time of your individual review you earned above the Average but you spent 5 months earning below the average wage, the average wage gets better every year.

perfectly possible. Not sure why a politicians attempt to explain it in a stressful situation fascinates you so much.

Key thing is to improve the national average because its fallen for years, this has been masked by the education sector falsifying the results (grade inflation) with the tacit acceptance of the government. That is now not acceptable and Gove is trying to make that happen. He may look like a Gnome but his heart is in the right place.

Now if it was Labour they would lower average and inflate the grades. The bit that is confusing the teachers is that we are asking for it to go the other way.

[doodab]

Last year you earned below the national wage when the figure was released last August, You get an annual review and pay rise in January, you are now earning above the average wage. The new Average wage is published in August it is higher and your wage is now below it, next January you expect a review and to get a pay rise that puts you above the average wage.

at the time of your individual review you earned above the Average but you spent 5 months earning below the average wage, the average wage gets better every year.

perfectly possible. Not sure why a politicians attempt to explain it in a stressful situation fascinates you so much.

Because, as per your explanation, it is only possible for everything to be above average when the average is computed from different data than you are comparing it to. If you are going to just pick an "average" of some random data you may as well set some other arbitrary threshold instead.

[speling bee]

Last year you earned below the national wage when the figure was released last August, You get an annual review and pay rise in January, you are now earning above the average wage. The new Average wage is published in August it is higher and your wage is now below it, next January you expect a review and to get a pay rise that puts you above the average wage.

at the time of your individual review you earned above the Average but you spent 5 months earning below the average wage, the average wage gets better every year.

perfectly possible. Not sure why a politicians attempt to explain it in a stressful situation fascinates you so much.

Key thing is to improve the national average because its fallen for years, this has been masked by the education sector falsifying the results (grade inflation) with the tacit acceptance of the government. That is now not acceptable and Gove is trying to make that happen. He may look like a Gnome but his heart is in the right place.

Now if it was Labour they would lower average and inflate the grades. The bit that is confusing the teachers is that we are asking for it to go the other way.

So are you saying it is possible for all schools to be good when good is defined as above average?

[doodab]

So are you saying it is possible for all schools to be good when good is defined as above average?

It is possible for all schools to be good when good is defined as better than the average of some unrelated set of data points, just the same as most houses are now more expensive than the average house price, if you measured the average in 1963.

[speling bee]

It is possible for all schools to be good when good is defined as better than the average of some unrelated set of data points, just the same as most houses are now more expensive than the average house price, if you measured the average in 1963.

But that is not what we mean when we say above average or better than average.