Professor John Robertson OBA, , former schoolteacher, education lecturer, head of department, Associate Dean (Quality Assurance), Research Professor, research methods tutor, Masters and PhD supervisor, multiple peer-reviewed international research author, Faculty Research Ethics Chair

The above is on the front page of the Scotsman, based on a report by the far from ‘independent‘, pompously self-styled Commission on School Reform (neither royal nor government just invented) and fronted by the notorious Carole Ford with, as always, party-affiliation hidden, and at the end evidence of Pisa-data which no respectable published educationist will ever use.

Note - I've put all my 'stuff' there because it matters in this topic which is being represented in MSM by a team less credible than I am to talk about it. I'm sorry if this seems self-important. I suppose it is.

I’d need to see their full report before commenting on its substance but I feel sure it won’t add up.

Why?

Because I know who these people are and what their agenda is:

The Commission on School Reform:

• Keir Bloomer (Chair): Education Consultant and former Director of Education [Clackmannanshire!]
• Carole Ford: Former head teacher of Kilmarnock Academy and former president of School Leaders Scotland [candidate in the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections for the Scottish Liberal Democrats in Glasgow Kelvin and on the Glasgow regional list, coming fifth]
• Jim Goodall: Former Head of Education and Community Services at Clackmannanshire Council and former Lib Dem councillor at East Dunbartonshire Council
• Johann Lamont: Former teacher (1979-99) and retired Member of Scottish Parliament (1999-2022) Labour leader!
• Cllr Alix Mathieson: Conservative Councillor at East Dunbartonshire Council, member of education committee and Former Chairperson of a third sector nursery
• Lindsay Paterson: Professor emeritus of education policy in the School of Social and Political Science at Edinburgh University. [The only Scottish ‘academic’ who thinks Pisa scores are useful]

Only Paterson has published research on education and it’s just based on statistics he chooses to favour such as Pisa scores. He has never, taught in schools. His background is in agricultural research. Ford is a serial presence in anti-SNP media. Bloomer wouldn’t know a research method it it bit him in the bum. Lamont? FFS.

Their previous report Behaviour in Schools, in September 2025, makes no pretence. It does not feature the word ‘method’ for the simple reason it has none – FAILED Research Methods 101! The report, also does not have a review of literature upon which to base and to justify its research questions [NONE] – FAILED.

And Pisa?

By Alasdair Macdonald

The issue is with PISA. It has very little statistical rigour and offers nothing in the way of improving educational practice.

I was a secondary school head teacher at the time it and other ‘measures’ were introduced in education in Scotland in other places. I and my colleagues argued against it.

Educational provision, like everything else, ought to be continuously evaluated, partly to get evidence on whether it is achieving the aims set out for it and partly to get information on areas which require attention. However, there are, literally, hundreds of aspects to be measured and many of these aspects are not measurable by things like tests of arithmetical competence. Such tests are part of the picture but their results are not the full picture (insofar as a full picture can be obtained) Most of the data have to be set in a fairly long time context so that temporary fluctuations can be seen. Usually such temporary fluctuations are easily explainable, in the cases of individual schools.

Such data do, in fact exist. There is a great deal of it and it requires a great deal of care and experience to identify things which are of statistical significance. And things can be significantly ‘good’ as well as ‘poor’.

PISA is of no benefit in this evaluative context. It is an instrument of BLAME and, as such, is a tool of control and compliance over schools and teachers. For some politicians and their media mouthpieces it is a malign instrument which stifles the creativity which is an essential part of teaching.

Some of those in power see such creativity as presenting a threat to their power.

Creativity and the autonomy necessary to be creative can challenge power, but it is the way that people in all walks of life improve things. It is essential in medicine, science, engineering, the arts, social policy, etc.

PISA is a club to beat creativity out of teachers and schools.

And:

As for Scotland performing ‘below’ England? Complete twaddle. See:

The England PISA sample consisted of 201 eligible schools having at least one pupil in this age range. In England, 3,852 pupils from original sample schools and 911 pupils from replacement schools participated. Pupils in participating schools that did not participate are not replaced. 159 agreed to participate, along with a further 32 replacement schools, but 16 schools withdrew before data collection. Data was therefore collected from 143 schools in the original sample and 32 replacement schools. Of this total, nine original sample schools and one replacement school were omitted from the response rate adjudication process, leaving a total of 134 schools from the original sample and 31 replacement schools.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/656dc3321104cf0013fa742f/PISA_2022_England_National_Report.pdf

So, in England, in the end, 165 schools and 4 763 pupils took part.

The Scottish participation, from only a tenth of the pupil population and schools, was:

117 secondary schools participated in the survey, representing a school response rate of 96.4 per cent; exceeding the OECD’s minimum standard of 85 per cent. 3,257 students took part giving a weighted student participation rate of 79.4 per cent, slightly below the student participation technical standard of 80 per cent. https://www.gov.scot/publications/programme-international-student-assessment-pisa-2022-highlights-scotlands-results/

There are 357 secondary schools overall in Scotland so a sample of 32.8% was used.

Only 4 763 pupils in 165 schools took part in England. There are 3 458 secondary schools in England so only 4.7% of them took part. Were they then representative or just maybe, the best performing?

There are roughly 10 times as many 15 year-olds in England yet the sample-size was less than twice.

The Pisa results in England and Scotland are simply not comparable and had the English sample of schools been similarly representative and not so suspiciously selective, we can only guess that Scotland would have performed far better than England.