David Frederick St John Jesson (born 23 August 1935) is a British educationalist and a professor in the Department of Economics at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

, who studied

specialist school Specialist schools, also known as specialised schools or specialized schools, are schools which specialise in a certain area or field of curriculum. In some countries, for example New Zealand, the term is used exclusively for schools specialis ...

s and value-added performance ( CVA).

Early life and career

He was born in Hackney in 1935, the son of Frederick John and Florence Jesson, and attended the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

and the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. He became a Maths teacher, teaching in several schools, state and independent, including

Charterhouse School Charterhouse is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Godalming, Surrey, England. Founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charter ...

and

Lincoln Christ's Hospital School Lincoln Christ's Hospital School is an English state secondary school with academy status located in Wragby Road in Lincoln. It was established in 1974, taking over the pupils and many of the staff of the older Lincoln Grammar School and Chri ...

. Jesson next joined the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

, where he developed the contextual value-added system of school performance measurement. This involves looking at the relative improvement of pupils, not their absolute performance, to establish how much 'value' has been 'added'. In 1995 he joined the

as Professor in the Economics department. He worked in the CPERM department, in the Department of Economics and Related studies, under Professor David Mayston. , he is listed as an associate member of York's Centre for Research on Education and Social Justice.

Research

His work on 'value-added' performance came from the belief that working from absolute exam grades was too crude a measurement, as pupils from different backgrounds and schools found it much more of a challenge to gain the same grades as someone from a more privileged background.

Science education

In 2007 he found that 68% of all

comprehensive schools A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis ...

– around 2,020 – did not offer the three separate science courses at GCSE, and that only one in 20 pupils at state schools took physics, chemistry and biology at GCSE.

Academically bright children

In a report in April 2008 for the

Specialist Schools and Academies Trust SSAT (The Schools Network) Limited (branded as SSAT, the Schools, Students and Teachers network) is a UK-based, independent educational membership organisation working with primary, secondary, Specialist schools programme, special and Free scho ...

, he found that academically bright children at comprehensive schools were likely to do better when there were more academically bright children at the same school. This was from data on more than 150,000 children, and involved his 'value-added' measurements. The higher the proportion of 'able' pupils, the better the value-added performance. In November 2005, he reported at the Birmingham annual conference of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (which represented around 2,400 secondary schools) that pupils at private school in the top academic 5% were almost guaranteed to get three A-grades at A-level, yet for state schools only a third of the top 5% would get three A-grades. He called this a 'severe talent drain' in the state school system. In the same speech he said that Britain's future economic success depended on identifying and nurturing this top 5% of pupils.

Personal life

In 1965 he married Catherine Whitehead; they had three children. He lives in St. Ives, Cornwall.

References

External links

Personal website
archived in May 2012
Centre for Performance Evaluation and Resource Management
– University of York, archived in February 2011
Specialist schools conference
archived in August 2011

News items

Faith schools, November 2009
– BBC
Specialist schools, January 2009
– BBC

– The Telegraph
Grammar schools, November 2007
– BBC
Church schools, February 2006
– BBC {{DEFAULTSORT:Jesson, David 1935 births Living people Academics of the University of York Alumni of the University of Cambridge Alumni of the University of Manchester English educational theorists English mathematicians Schoolteachers from London English statisticians British mathematics educators People from the London Borough of Hackney People from St Ives, Cornwall Scholars of socio-economic mobility Specialist schools Academics of the University of Sheffield