[okfn-za] School Report Cards

[mtb at martinb.za.net]

Heya Adi,

All pretty good questions that I would like to know.

How would you define "bang for buck" from a school?

As far as I know (osmosis from numerous teacher friends and a mother as 
a teacher) catchment areas do exist, but you are not 100% tied to them. 
Schools will generally take someone from within it than outside it, all 
else being equal. Not sure how boarding schools play into this though.

mtb
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 15:40:07 +0200
> From: Adi Eyal <adi at code4sa.org>
> To: Thoko Madonko <thoko.madonko at gmail.com>
> Cc: "okfn-za at lists.okfn.org" <okfn-za at lists.okfn.org>,
> 	"odadi at googlegroups.com" <odadi at googlegroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [okfn-za] School Report Cards
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAEQY0Y4tC5G_Co-FVeT5kb5+Di44H7D2LVX_xQX+wc0Cs9kmmA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
>>
>>
>> Definitely. To have a summary of this kind for our clinics and 
>> schools
>> would be great. It's visually pleasing and easily understandble.
>> Let me know if anything comes from the discussion.
>>
>
> So, my question is specifically how would this be useful? What 
> decision
> would it help me make as a parent. Visualising arbitrary data is nice 
> but
> possibly not worth the effort. I can think of a couple of questions 
> that I
> would like answered which I think might be helpful:
>
> 1. What qualifications do the teachers in the school have
> 2. How many kids in a class
> 3. What extra-murals are available
> 4. How does the school fare in sports
> 5. Do I get bang for buck at the school
> 6. What is the application / acceptance ratio
> 7. What is the catchment area for a school (do catchment areas really 
> exist
> or are they made up by schools as an excuse to restrict access).
>
> What is that one killer question that data can answer that would make 
> the
> most impact on decision-makers (parents, teachers, policy-makers, 
> etc)?
>
> Adi