U turn on interactive transition matrices

Back in February I was chasing down the interactive transition matrices. After a fruitless email exchange it was met with the rather disappointing response from Raiseonlne.

Dear Kristian,

Thank you for your email. I am sorry to say that the interactive transition matrices are not going to be updated for 2013 due to resource capacity. The static transition matrices are available from within the RAISEonline library and have been updated for 2013.

For the record, I did share my disappointment in that woefully, lackluster justification though that was the end of the discussion.

Today, I was emailed by the David Blow to tell me that through “quiet persistent diplomacy”  the interactive transition matrices had been posted on the Raiseonline website. What is more, that all the DT subjects had been included.

David Blow also authors a hugely powerful, yet simple, ‘Subject VA Grid (Transition Matrices) spreadsheet.’ An ‘all-in-one.’ A hugely powerful tool for exploring and comparing school and department performance against national attainment. Hitting right at the heart of school improvement, the tool “facilitates a detailed discussion,” and I for one grateful school leader, regularly discusses department practice with Middle Leaders using his tool. If you can be patient further still, David has plans to update the tool over the Easter break.

There is no doubt in my mind that transition matrices will be even more important for school leadership as we move forward with Progress 8 measures and that it is becoming more important that there is a purposeful subject by subject way of looking at progress. Thank goodness the resource capacity gap has been closed and not merely narrowed.

Here is food for thought…

 2013 Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4 transition matrices for 40 different GCSE subjects

It is also worth noting, that with a gentle prompt from a trusted colleague, that this U-turn is very much to the benefit of all school leaders in the business of raising student attainment.

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