Event

The Open Lectures Committee invites you to attend the Professorial Inaugural Lecture by Jerome De Lisle, Professor, Education Leadership on the topic, Among the S.E.A. believers: The Price we Must Pay.

The lecture takes place at 6pm at the School of Education Auditorium. This event is free and open to the public.

To RSVP, please email UWISTAevents@sta.uwi.edu or call 662-2002 ext. 85012, 83996.

Abstract

Early test-based selection for all students entering secondary school has been a feature of Trinidad and Tobago’s education since the early 1960s. A mimic of the colonial College Exhibition system, early selection and placement at 11+ has been retained well into the era of universal secondary education. The questions are: Is early selection really working for us? What does the evidence say? What are the benefits and disadvantages of the current placement system? Who loses and who wins? Does the nation win? Perhaps, most importantly, why do we believe so strongly in the value of such a process?

About Professor Jerome De Lisle

Jerome De Lisle became Professor of Education Leadership in the School of Education, St. Augustine in December 2016. He earned his PhD (Education) in 1994 from The UWI with a thesis on “The work environment of secondary school teachers in Trinidad and Tobago.”

He has formal training in multiple education sub-specialisations and has worked successfully in the field of measurement and evaluation at the Faculty of Medical Sciences. His research areas at the School of Education includes educational leadership measurement, evaluation, and assessment.

He has worked on several IDB-funded consultancies for the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Education in the area of evaluation and system reform, including the evaluation of the Primary School Rewrite of the Curriculum (2015) (Team Lead, School of Education, UWI) and the analysis of examination and assessment data for Trinidad and Tobago from PISA, CSEC, CAPE and SEA (2016) (Individual consultancy). He is an active member of numerous learned societies such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA), American Evaluation Association (AEA), National Council for Measurement in Evaluation (NCME), and the International Congress of School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI). In April 2019, he is to receive an award from the Caribbean and African Studies in Education (CASE) special interest group in the AERA for his support. He has published numerous critical articles on the 11+ in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean, including “Differential outcomes in high stakes eleven plus testing: the role of gender, geography and assessment design in Trinidad and Tobago in Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice. This article analyzed test scores, placements, and choices from 279, 904 students over eleven cohorts (1995 to 2005).

He has also published small scale qualitative studies such as “Using multiple methods to investigate eleven-year-olds’ experiences of preparing for a high stakes public examination in Trinidad and Tobago” in Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, elementary and Early Years. His most recently published academic work are in the top tier international journals of Gender and Education (Taylor & Francis), School Effectiveness and School Improvement (Taylor & Francis), and Educational Management and Leadership (Sage). The titles of these works are “The development of theory on gendered patterns of achievement in the Anglophone Caribbean: insights, contradictions, and silences”, “Using an iterative mixed-methods research design to investigate schools facing exceptionally challenging circumstances within Trinidad and Tobago” and “Leading high poverty primary schools in Trinidad and Tobago-what do successful principals do?”.