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Original poster

Results: Anyone admitting to crazy algorithm uplift?

30 replies

vellvellvell · 20/08/2020 22:11

Just reading about a student being bizarrely upgraded from a 1 to an 8 and wondering if anyone here had seen any strange uplifts in grades? ... www.tes.com/news/watch-gcse-2020-bizarre-rises-moderated-grades

OP posts:
historygeek · 21/08/2020 11:12

Well I suppose you could have a student with very high prior attainment, at a school with historically excellent results but never attends school so the teacher enters a 1 as the CAG grade but the algorithm doesn't compute personal circumstance and therefore gives an 8.
The algorithm is much more likely to be wrong the other way, i.e. student with rubbish poor KS2 results, or no KS2 data as new to the country, at a poor performing school but works their arse off, teacher knows they would get a decent grade in exam but algorithm doesn't compute personal circumstance!!

MrsSpenserGregson · 21/08/2020 11:09

Here's the Guardian version. The sub-heading is "Exams fiasco continues as heads fear results raised by algorithm set pupils up to fail"

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/20/schools-consider-appeals-against-gcse-grades-that-are-too-high

MrsSpenserGregson · 21/08/2020 11:07

Ah I've just read the article in the Guardian on this topic. One of the schools quoted is in my county (Dorset). It also mentions a school which, in recent years, has had amazing French GCSE results due to a number of bilingual / native speakers taking the exam. This year there were no such candidates, but guess what the algorithm did ....

@Julmust yes, students are getting either the CAG or the GAV (algorithm grade), whichever is higher

Redlocks28 · 21/08/2020 11:07

That sounds like a computer error.

Julmust · 21/08/2020 11:03

That's really strange. So the teacher predicted a certain grade (CAG) but then the algorithm has predicted a much higher grade and they can use that one instead. I hadn't known that and just thought everyone was getting the CAG now