On the so-called 'Pisa' tests, comparing achievement in various countries:

The OECD has set its face against measuring achievement in relation to the curriculum, preferring to try to capture "literacy" or "the ability to use knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges".   more »

Ofsted reported yesterday that the brightest children in deprived areas were not, in some schools, being given the chances that the government wanted for them. This 'levelling down' attitude, that refuses chances to those who would benefit from them, on the grounds that not everyone would be able to take advantage of them, is just what took the chance of Latin away from the students in my home town, a decade or more ago. ..   more »