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Education

New grammar schools would benefit just six areas, says study

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Pupil

There are only six areas in England where parents want new grammar schools and creating them would benefit the wider school population, a study says.

The Education Policy Institute modelled the impact of government plans to expand selective schools by looking at how 32,844 districts would be affected.

The think tank applied the government’s conditions for allowing new schools.

The government called the study a crude attempt to second-guess the results of its consultation on new schools.

The researchers began by constructing a set of tests mirroring the conditions for new grammars set out in the government’s White Paper, Schools that Work for Everyone.

These were that they:

  • should not be to the detriment of pupils who miss out
  • need to be in areas where there are sufficient numbers of pupils who could attend
  • should not undermine existing high-performing schools
  • are only in areas where parents want them

They found that broader education levels would be harmed if new selective schools were created in areas where more than half of highly attaining pupils could access grammar school places.

This “no detriment” principle knocked out just under 30% of areas.

They then excluded any area that did not have at least 150 pupils with high prior attainment who lived within a reasonable travelling distance.

This disqualified a further 1% of areas.

The researchers then excluded areas which already had high-performing non-selective schools, whose fortunes could be harmed by the introduction of new grammar schools.

This left just under a fifth of areas.

When these areas were cross-referenced with the 37 local authority areas which expressed strong support for new grammars in a recent YouGov poll, just six areas remained.

These were Solihull, Essex, North Yorkshire, Dorset, Northamptonshire and North Somerset, all of which have fewer disadvantaged pupils than the national average.

The study added that expansion principles would be met only in parts of each local authority area.

“We therefore conclude that it will be difficult for the government to identify areas for grammar school expansion that will avoid damage to pupils who do not access the new selective places, where there is public demand for new selective places and high disadvantage,” the researchers said.

‘Complete mess’

The EPI’s chairman, David Laws, said his organisation’s analysis showed that the provision of additional grammar school places in England would be unlikely to be an effective strategy to boost social mobility.

“The additional analysis that we have now published highlights further significant challenges which face the government if ministers decide to press on with these proposals.”

Labour’s shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, said the report “joins the mountains of evidence that proves a return to grammar schools will not improve education for all, but will actively make things worse”.

Ms Rayner said the grammar proposals were “a distraction” to cover up problems created over the past six years: “a teacher shortage crisis, thousands of children in super-sized classes, school budget cuts and not enough good school places”.

The National Union of Teachers called the plans “a complete mess”.

“It is simply not possible to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils while also increasing the number of selective schools,” said NUT general secretary Kevin Courtney.

The Association of School and College Leaders also believes that expanding grammars will damage rather than improve poor children’s prospects.

“The attainment gap between poor children and other pupils is one of the biggest challenges we face in the education system, but more selection is simply not the solution,” said ASCL’s interim general secretary, Malcolm Trobe.

And in a letter to Education Secretary Justine Greening, 33 head teachers from Kent call for the county’s selective education system to be abandoned.

The heads, all from non-selective schools, say selection “serves to erode self-confidence, to limit aspirations and develop a culture of ‘second best’ that good leaders in non-selective schools then spend time undoing so that they can unlock the students’ true potential”.

Kent has one of the widest gaps between the achievement of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students, say the heads.

“The very existence of a two-tier selective system is the biggest cause of this inequality,” they add.

‘Transformative impact’

But a spokeswoman for the DfE dismissed the findings, noting that its own consultation on removing the ban from grammar schools closes on Monday.

She said: “This report is a crude attempt to second-guess what that consultation will conclude.

“Independent organisations have recognised the transformative impact grammar schools can have on the lives of disadvantaged young people.

“Our consultation closes on 12 December and we look forward to considering all the responses.”

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Grammar schools benefit rich, says OECD

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

grammar

Grammar schools are likely to benefit wealthy families without raising overall standards, says the OECD’s head of education.

Andreas Schleicher said international evidence suggested that selection was not linked to improving schools.

He said bright pupils in England were not getting enough opportunities, but grammar school tests were not reliable.

“Any kind of one-off test is likely to favour social background over true academic potential,” he said.

Education Secretary Justine Greening has published plans calling for more selective schools in England, and a Department for Education spokesman said any new grammars would “prioritise the admission of disadvantaged pupils”.

Meritocracy?

Mr Schleicher, the think tank’s education director, was presenting the OECD’s annual report comparing education systems across the industrialised world.

He said there was no relationship between increasing selection and how well school systems performed.

And countries such as Germany and Switzerland, where selection was widely used, were not more likely to produce high-achieving students.

“You might expect that where you have more grammar schools, you will have more of the really top students, that’s not what we’ve seen,” said Mr Schleicher.

The OECD education expert said access to selective schools was often unfairly biased towards wealthier families – and that contradicted the aim of stretching the most talented.

“I can see the case for introducing more meritocracy in the school system. Bright students here don’t always have the educational opportunities they deserve,” said Mr Schleicher.

Entrance tests

“But what happens in most European systems is that academic selection becomes social selection.

“Schools are very good at selecting students by their social background, but they’re not very good at selecting students by their academic potential.”

When admission to school was based on a one-off test, he said, “wealthy parents will find a way through it”.

But there were Asian school systems, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, that seemed to be more effective in how they selected pupils.

“They are selective, but they seem to be very good at figuring out how good students really are,” said Mr Schleicher.

But focusing on grammars and selection was not the way to raise standards.

“I think the importance of grammar schools is dramatically overplayed,” he said.

And there should be more investment for “more schools that are more demanding and more rigorous”.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We know that grammar schools provide a good education for their disadvantaged pupils, and we want more pupils from lower-income backgrounds to benefit from that.”

“We are clear that relaxing restrictions on selective education can and should be to the betterment, not at the expense, of other local schools.”

The annual OECD report highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the UK’s education systems.

It showed that by international standards, the children of migrants did very well – and often better than those who were not migrants.

The report says that in the UK, children born to parents born overseas were more likely to go to university than those with native-born parents.

Mr Schleicher suggested that this could reflect “higher levels of motivation” among migrants, who saw education as a “way of moving up the ladder”.

In contrast, he said, British-born families were more likely to face “downward mobility” in their levels of education.

The bigger international picture, said Mr Schleicher, was of a “relentless” increase in the numbers going to university, with entry rates of 60% and above becoming increasingly common.

Highlights from this year’s OECD education report for the UK include:

  • Children in migrant families have higher rates of university entry than UK-born families
  • Student debt levels are higher than anywhere except the United States, after tuition fee increases in England
  • Total spending on education, both public and private, is above the OECD average, including the cost of tuition fees
  • Completion rates for degree courses are very high by international standards
  • For every one student from the UK who studies overseas, there are 14 international students in the UK
  • Across the OECD, graduates on average earn 55% more than those with school-level qualifications such as A-levels
  • The UK is unusual in having bigger primary classes and smaller secondary school classes
  • The level of young people not in education, employment or training – Neets – remains below the OECD average
  • The UK has very low levels of non-formal education – such as adult education classes – provided by education institutions         [Source:- BBC]
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Online Marketing

Marketing on the Internet — who can benefit from an online marketing approach?

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Top 15 Advantages of Internet Marketing for Your Business - EDKENT® MEDIA

Abstract

The research builds upon the literature in electronic commerce and past research in marketing with the objective of understanding factors that impact a product’s adaptability to online marketing. A review of marketing channel choice literature reveals a set of factors and channel choice functions that are considered important in making channel decisions. Using this as a basis, four major channel functions, namely, product customization, availability, logistics, and transaction complexity are considered relevant in understanding the implications for Internet marketing. By building upon previous research in the area of channel selection, we provide a means of classifying Internet marketing initiatives based on product characteristics. The classification scheme based on product characteristics can help analyze the significance of each factor on the success of a firm’s online marketing approach. Further, the classification scheme is used to discuss decision support implications.

[“source=sciencedirect”]

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Blogging

5 Ways Small Businesses can Benefit from Blogging

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

5 Benefits of Blogging for Small Businesses

Startups prefer online promotion over offline promotion because the former is cost-effective and yet often has shown definite results. Because blogging is the default window leading to online promotion, more and more brands are getting into it these days.

For a small business on a shoestring budget, investing time and resources in blogging is a better option tha other marketing alternatives. Blogging can aid in getting a high ranking on search engines and in gaining social media visibility?

But anything beyond that?

The Benefits of Blogging for Small Businesses

Let’s find out:

Establishes Thought Leadership

Blogging is instrumental in establishing thought leadership. Small firms need it more than their big counterparts. That’s because big companies can spend money and skip intermediate phases in the sales funnel. But small businesses have to pass through them.

Contrary to what many believe, thought leadership is not simply an accompanying factor in the sales cycle. It impacts a customer’s purchasing decisions when he’s on the payment page. The ORM overdose has made average customers suspicious about the claims made by brands about their products. But customers are less suspicious about industry thought leaders.

Another benefit of thought leadership is it attracts efficient employees, who might otherwise work in big companies. Some of those employees feel the corporate houses are soulless places to work. Big companies don’t allow employees to perform fully up to their potential. Small brands, especially the ones that are thought leaders, grant them this privilege. What’s funny about thought leadership is it doesn’t go hand in hand with paid efforts. Customers always take promotion with a pinch of salt.

Organic efforts, especially blogging, establishes thought leadership.

Content Planning

Blogging makes content planning easy for brands. In fact, the two are not separate. Brands that excel in blogging are those that plan their content in a meticulous way.

How exactly is content planning beneficial for startups?

Proper content planning can save cost and increase ROI. Brands, both big and small, unnecessarily shell out money due to wrong content planning. Big brands may not keep track of every dime they spend, but small businesses do. Cost-cutting and ROI increase are the focal points.

The following are essential for content planning:

  • Consumer demographics,
  • Problems consumers face, and
  • How branded products offer up solutions.

Of the factors above, some help brands to understand customer idea feedback. The next step of content planning is drafting the content in accordance with such feedback. Audience reactions can clue marketers in on the acceptability of the posts they publish. Once they garner audience appreciation, they can move on with the accompanying writing style.

Strategizing each step is content planning. Content planning helps to measure content marketing ROI, which is difficult otherwise. In the absence of industry-approved publishing metrics, proxies like virality and engagement factors are used. But via content planning, we can figure out more rigorous ROI measurement factors.

Monetizing the Blog

Very few give it a serious thought. They should because the majority of startup companies are bootstrapped. Blog monetization can be an alternative way for them to make money. It’s not rocket-science. There are ample resources on how to create a money-making blog from scratch.

Some hold monetizing a blog reduces the odds of establishing thought leadership. That’s not true. Making the site cluttered with ads is not a good idea, but paid promotion via in-text links (to a limited extent, of course) and giving favorable reviews to sponsors are great ways to monetize a site without putting banner ads on it.

Other than financial benefits, blog monetization can help startups expand their network. As they explore the financial opportunities, they can partner with other bloggers and with industry influencers. They may hop onto the money-making bandwagon if given a chance.

How-to Guide

Startups don’t hate DIY as much as big brands do. That’s because big enterprises can take care of all product related needs of customers — from packaging to promotion. Startups, on the other hand, offer specific services targeted at specific requirements.

Customers who go for DIY may need supporting tools and additional services. They expect these at lower cost, which rules big brands out of the equation. Only small businesses can understand and meet their requirements. Here’s an example:

Let’s say a small business operates in the chimney flue manufacturing industry. On the blog page of its site, it can offer guidelines on how to install a new chimney flue. A homeowner can do the installation himself, but he needs to buy the flue from a store. This is how small businesses can endorse DIY and yet publish how-to guides on their sites.

Tutorials and how-to type posts can quickly draw reader’s attention. How-to-led DIY can make someone successful in his endeavor or result in failure. The first outcome adds authenticity to the procedure detailed by the blogger (the small business). The second outcome prompts readers to get back to the blogger with questions, leading to a long trail of interactions. Hence, how-to posts lead to a win-win situation.

Getting Noticed

Startups aim to secure funding from venture capitalists. VC firms invest in businesses which they deem worthy of investing. How do they decide whether to invest in a startup or not?

They calculate the possible ROI based on speculations.

For a small business, it’s tough to convince investors that funding it will bring them good ROI. Approaching the investors, and for that matter reaching them, is the first hurdle. Persuading them to invest is the next. And do bear in mind that as a startup, you have to jump all these hurdles without sounding pushy and without bragging about yourself.

Blogging is an excellent way to get noticed by big players. There’s no dearth of platforms if drawing the attention of the big players is on your mind. Admins of third-party B2B blogs will be delighted to publish your posts, provided these posts are useful and offer new information. Then there are publishing platforms like Pulse. LinkedIn is where most of the VC guys are. And they hover over Pulse articles for new insights.

From your blog, people running VC firms will come to know about your achievements, methodology and innovations. You can even present case studies to bolster your claims. From case studies, investors can get a glimpse of your firm’s internal workflow and business process. If they are impressed by these, they may invest. Choose relevant topics, do a lot of research and offer solutions. In short, give VC firms all the reasons to notice you in the crowd.

Summing Up

In the era of content marketing, blogging is bound to help a business climb up the ladder of success. However, the efforts put into it must be precision-guided. The five tips shared here can make sure of that.

[“Source-smallbiztrends”]

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Blogging

5 Ways Small Businesses can Benefit from Blogging

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

5 Benefits of Blogging for Small Businesses

Startups prefer online promotion over offline promotion because the former is cost-effective and yet often has shown definite results. Because blogging is the default window leading to online promotion, more and more brands are getting into it these days.

For a small business on a shoestring budget, investing time and resources in blogging is a better option tha other marketing alternatives. Blogging can aid in getting a high ranking on search engines and in gaining social media visibility?

But anything beyond that?

The Benefits of Blogging for Small Businesses

Let’s find out:

Establishes Thought Leadership

Blogging is instrumental in establishing thought leadership. Small firms need it more than their big counterparts. That’s because big companies can spend money and skip intermediate phases in the sales funnel. But small businesses have to pass through them.

Contrary to what many believe, thought leadership is not simply an accompanying factor in the sales cycle. It impacts a customer’s purchasing decisions when he’s on the payment page. The ORM overdose has made average customers suspicious about the claims made by brands about their products. But customers are less suspicious about industry thought leaders.

Another benefit of thought leadership is it attracts efficient employees, who might otherwise work in big companies. Some of those employees feel the corporate houses are soulless places to work. Big companies don’t allow employees to perform fully up to their potential. Small brands, especially the ones that are thought leaders, grant them this privilege. What’s funny about thought leadership is it doesn’t go hand in hand with paid efforts. Customers always take promotion with a pinch of salt.

Organic efforts, especially blogging, establishes thought leadership.

Content Planning

Blogging makes content planning easy for brands. In fact, the two are not separate. Brands that excel in blogging are those that plan their content in a meticulous way.

How exactly is content planning beneficial for startups?

Proper content planning can save cost and increase ROI. Brands, both big and small, unnecessarily shell out money due to wrong content planning. Big brands may not keep track of every dime they spend, but small businesses do. Cost-cutting and ROI increase are the focal points.

The following are essential for content planning:

  • Consumer demographics,
  • Problems consumers face, and
  • How branded products offer up solutions.

Of the factors above, some help brands to understand customer idea feedback. The next step of content planning is drafting the content in accordance with such feedback. Audience reactions can clue marketers in on the acceptability of the posts they publish. Once they garner audience appreciation, they can move on with the accompanying writing style.

Strategizing each step is content planning. Content planning helps to measure content marketing ROI, which is difficult otherwise. In the absence of industry-approved publishing metrics, proxies like virality and engagement factors are used. But via content planning, we can figure out more rigorous ROI measurement factors.

Monetizing the Blog

Very few give it a serious thought. They should because the majority of startup companies are bootstrapped. Blog monetization can be an alternative way for them to make money. It’s not rocket-science. There are ample resources on how to create a money-making blog from scratch.

Some hold monetizing a blog reduces the odds of establishing thought leadership. That’s not true. Making the site cluttered with ads is not a good idea, but paid promotion via in-text links (to a limited extent, of course) and giving favorable reviews to sponsors are great ways to monetize a site without putting banner ads on it.

Other than financial benefits, blog monetization can help startups expand their network. As they explore the financial opportunities, they can partner with other bloggers and with industry influencers. They may hop onto the money-making bandwagon if given a chance.

How-to Guide

Startups don’t hate DIY as much as big brands do. That’s because big enterprises can take care of all product related needs of customers — from packaging to promotion. Startups, on the other hand, offer specific services targeted at specific requirements.

Customers who go for DIY may need supporting tools and additional services. They expect these at lower cost, which rules big brands out of the equation. Only small businesses can understand and meet their requirements. Here’s an example:

Let’s say a small business operates in the chimney flue manufacturing industry. On the blog page of its site, it can offer guidelines on how to install a new chimney flue. A homeowner can do the installation himself, but he needs to buy the flue from a store. This is how small businesses can endorse DIY and yet publish how-to guides on their sites.

Tutorials and how-to type posts can quickly draw reader’s attention. How-to-led DIY can make someone successful in his endeavor or result in failure. The first outcome adds authenticity to the procedure detailed by the blogger (the small business). The second outcome prompts readers to get back to the blogger with questions, leading to a long trail of interactions. Hence, how-to posts lead to a win-win situation.

Getting Noticed

Startups aim to secure funding from venture capitalists. VC firms invest in businesses which they deem worthy of investing. How do they decide whether to invest in a startup or not?

They calculate the possible ROI based on speculations.

For a small business, it’s tough to convince investors that funding it will bring them good ROI. Approaching the investors, and for that matter reaching them, is the first hurdle. Persuading them to invest is the next. And do bear in mind that as a startup, you have to jump all these hurdles without sounding pushy and without bragging about yourself.

Blogging is an excellent way to get noticed by big players. There’s no dearth of platforms if drawing the attention of the big players is on your mind. Admins of third-party B2B blogs will be delighted to publish your posts, provided these posts are useful and offer new information. Then there are publishing platforms like Pulse. LinkedIn is where most of the VC guys are. And they hover over Pulse articles for new insights.

From your blog, people running VC firms will come to know about your achievements, methodology and innovations. You can even present case studies to bolster your claims. From case studies, investors can get a glimpse of your firm’s internal workflow and business process. If they are impressed by these, they may invest. Choose relevant topics, do a lot of research and offer solutions. In short, give VC firms all the reasons to notice you in the crowd.

Summing Up

In the era of content marketing, blogging is bound to help a business climb up the ladder of success. However, the efforts put into it must be precision-guided. The five tips shared here can make sure of that.

[“Source-smallbiztrends”]

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