University Admissions and the Prediction of Degree Performance: an Analysis in the Light of Changes to the English Schools’ Examination System

The United Kingdom's Department for Education has recently changed the nature of the AS‐level examinations normally taken by students aspiring to enter higher education degree courses one year into their post‐compulsory education. In the face of protests from universities and other institutions that this would both harm students’ progression towards the A‐level qualifications, on which entry to English universities is normally based, and make it difficult for universities determining which of their applicants were best placed to benefit from their degree courses, the Department conducted research which it claimed showed that degree outcome could be predicted as well from the results of GCSE examinations taken one year before AS‐levels as from AS‐levels themselves. This paper critiques those analyses and their conclusions showing, through a re‐analysis and extended interpretation of the Department's data, that AS‐levels provide a more reliable predictor of degree performance in 2011 than GCSEs and that many students who performed better at AS‐level than at GCSE gained a place, and performed well, at a university with high entrance standards.     

Stepping stones in learning

This article is an analysis of data drawn from semi-structured, taperecorded interviews with five female primary school headteachers. The research focused on their perceptions of their management role. One significant and unexpected finding was that these women not only denied feeling stressed but were deriving immense satisfaction from their work. It is suggested that much of their enjoyment comes from the high degree of emotional intelligence they display in managing people, time and resources and which also partly accounts for their success and managerial confidence. The degree of power, control and choice which these women exercise in their work lends support to the claim that there is an emerging group of managers in primary education who may represent the ‘new women of power’.     

Community,identity and contested notions of place: a study of Haitian recreational soccer players in the Dominican Republic

Soccer is a sport not commonly associated with the Dominican Republic given the positioning of baseball as the national game. Yet, for some migrant groups in the country, such as those from Haiti, soccer plays an important part in their lives. Haitians have used soccer as a way to unite their communities and establish a sense of place. This paper assesses how these Haitian migrants use the game as a means of creating a community and developing a common focal point. Through participant observations and semi-structured interviews, this work may help us construct new understandings of the ways in which migrants use sport to assimilate to new surroundings and retain links to home.