Ofsted - Grade inflation The Times

[littlebilliie]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/private-schools-gamed-covid-rules-to-give-their-pupils-more-top-a-levels-6z0z6w9r5

I read this last night and it's devalued the grades for those that deserved them and changed the outlook for those in state education.

Ofsted should review this.

I work in a very deprived school and when the algorithm was applied our grades dropped dramatically, even those we gave 3s to moved down to a 2. In the year maybe 2 kids would have got a couple of 7-8s but these all went, yet nothing happened like that to the local private school

Private schools gaming the exams system.

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you

It's preposterous to suggest that state schools are to blame for the obvious over inflation of grades by some private schools. This isn't about poverty of aspiration, it's clearly about cheating the system.

Unfortunately, I think there is nothing that can be done. The system relied on teachers' integrity and professionalism, and clearly,
some of those working in the independent sector clearly have neither. They have essentially allowed their pupils to buy top grades. Shame on them.

And how do private schools get such a high percentage of pupils getting the top grades?

Do they stop those pupils who won't get high grades from doing the exams? That's a guaranteed way of getting a high percentage pass rate and a high percentage of top grades.

@gleegeek

Dd's college didn't inflate grades, infact they were really tough on them. Lots missed university places as a result. Dd was fortunate to get into her first choice uni despite not quite achieving her offer grades and has put a-levels behind her but I'm still cross on her behalf!

My DC got reasonable grades but he had performed exceptionally well the mocks and above expectations. We were hoping for 8/9s but it was a mix of 5/6/7. After the results came out the state school had been quite worried about over predicting on grades and kept them low. 50% of the kids failed English or maths, which means life chances were affected.

This is very serious and sad for so many as this has shown this was not a level playing field.

I feel sorry for the majority that were in state education.

@noblegiraffe

The fault lies with the state schools.

For not sufficiently gaming the system?

I've no idea why the Times is digging up this story again now, it was heavily reported at the time. What's their agenda? Are they worried exams are going to be cancelled again??

I think they can evidence the story now, it was suspected at the time but as the article suggested the grades from some schools were not consistent with other year groups.

@Hercisback

The fault lies with the state schools

For being honest? For assessing students fairly and not awarding 9s across the board?

Clearly not all independent schools did this, and the smaller size of independents could mean more year on year changes than a bigger state cohort.

You’re assuming there was honesty in the state system. Schools changed teacher assessed grades in state schools and teachers were told to assess based on the best possible day. It’s meant that friends who teach sixth form have got students who are not capable to undertaking the courses they are now on.

All schools capitalised on this opportunity and the shame is that no one will trust these years results (and possibly the next few years).

Grades are given on a curve arent they so not comparable year to year anyway.

Poverty of BS more like.

My friends DS for straight 9s from his private school. Lovely lad, but in no way does he deserve those grades. He's always been average and failed to get into any of the selective schools my friend tried a few years before. It's a nonsense. But I suspect he and his peers will come unstuck at A levels.

@littlebilliie that is what happened at my daughters state secondary.

For example she always got 8s/9s in English language, including her Mocks, but was given a Grade 6 because they under-graded expecting them to be modified, she is predicted a A in A-Level English Language.

She was failed in one exam and resat and the result was 3 grades higher! They hadn’t even finished the syllabus by March and still had a term of teaching before revision!

It’s actually quite devastating because they have these grades throughout their careers.

We tried to appeal but appealing on Grades wasn’t allowed.

Oh and I then had to pay £50 for an amended results certificate!

It is equally unfair on those who legitimately got high grades, but now have everyone telling they don't really count.

My DD has always been a high achiever. She got 6s in her SATs. WE went private for secondary, but from the very beginning, based on her SATs and tests they did when she started, she was always predicted 8's and 9's. She continued to track that trajectory throughout her 5 years there. That is what she was awarded. But can I make her believe that she earned them?

She changed schools for 6th form. Had to pass stringent entrance tests to get in. Again predicted As and A*s for A level, but she still doesn't feel that she is worthy. The last thing that she needs is for her results to be tagged as Covid cohort to give her even more self-doubt.

Some private schools may have over- awarded. I am convinced that the two that I have close knowledge of didn't. The kids are continually tested and tracked - results were not a surprise.

It's so disheartening for the young people to be told every year that their grades aren't good enough. Their work isn't good enough. When will it be?

DD did her GCSEs last summer, the inconsistency between various schools and how they came to their grade conclusions was a shocker, and the government should have laid out some kind of framework. As it was, DD's (private) school, was very focused on ensuring bulletproof evidence of grades, and DD ended up doing more exams than she would have done had it been a normal year. She did 3 sets of full exams between March and June, often taking 2 or 3 exams a day, no days off as there would be in a normal exam timetable. The pressure was immense.

This contrasted with her friends at the local state school who did the odd bit of controlled work during a specific lesson time. Ultimately, I'm hoping the exams she did will help for her A Levels - at least she's had some exam practice, but she's been left with the worst of both worlds - burnt out through stress, and being told by the media that she didn't deserve her grades.

Also I think the stats presented by the press are deliberately misleading. If academies managed to go from 7% A grades to 17.1% A grades that’s still increasing the number of kids achieving A*s by a multiplier of around 2.4….so independents going from 16.1% to 31.5% is a similar multiplier. It just looks “bigger” because the private schools are starting from a higher baseline. I got those stats from the government website.

@spongedog I know several college teachers and students who were given 4s or 5 in their gcses so got onto A level or level 3 courses are not up to the required standard. The colleges get 6 weeks to figure this out and move them to the level 2 courses or more suitable A levels. Unfortunately as the problem was so much bigger than in any other year they were not necessarily able to identify this quick enough and if its after the 6 weeks it would be listed as a fail on their stats (according to the people working there) so the principals are not willing to allow it after the cut off. Its not good for the teachers or students.

I definitely have a bit of sour grapes when it comes to GCSE results. My DS is Y11 now, he is predicted 7/8s with potential for some 9s. Obviously Y11 haven't done a full year since Y8 but I know of close family members who were originally on track for 4-6 grades got 7/8/9s in their GCSEs through the teacher assessments. I know it makes no difference to DS at all, as long as he gets what he deserves but it just seems so unfair. The other issue is that whilst there are some DCs who got inflated grades there are many DCs who 100% deserved those grades but people will always assume they were inflated.

@RampantIvy

These pupils with inflated grades will come unstuck at university because I don't think degree courses are being dumbed down.

Universities use a much wider range of assessment methods though, so there will be kids who wouldn't have done well in A level exams but will be fine with university assessment.

I didn't get the impression my son's (state) sixth form college was giving out high grades.

When he entered the sixth form he was predicted 3 As. In the event, he got A star/A/B with teacher assessment. I suspect he did a bit better on the subject he got the A star for with individual assessments rather than having to learn two years' work for exams. But he did a language and was unable due to covid to visit the country and also had little face to face teaching in the first lockdown. So his B would have probably been an A. Swings and roundabouts, same UCAS points and he got a place at a decent uni.

I also felt very strongly at the time that if someone was borderline, they should be given the higher grade given what they had to go through with online teaching or simply being set work.

Exams only measure who's good at exams. They don't measure potential in the workplace. I was good at exams. I suspect those who do well on coursework actually perform better in the workplace.

I totally agree re that exams only show who is good at exams. I was good at exams as is DS1 however DH and DS2 are not. DH and I do the same job but his knowledge is definitely wider than mine, he had to study for our professional exams every day whereas I crammed for 2 weeks.

I would much prefer a mixture of coursework and exams, the split of each depending on the subject.

@Hollyhead

The cancelling of exams was the most unnecessary action of the pandemic with such poor consequences for young people.

Absolutely agree. There were ways round it, maybe it would have been difficult in 2020 but definitely should have been achievable in 2021 when they had more time to plan.

The cancelling of exams was bad, what was unforgivable was the total lack of any sort of plan to deal with it. When it was announced by Boris, they literally had nothing. Then it got passed to Ofqual to deal with who after a couple of months shrugged and said 'let's let schools sort it out'.

Exam boards were supposed to be moderating, so if there are major discrepancies, that's on them, not on the schools who basically got dropped totally in the shit with a job no one else could do at extremely short notice and with fuck-all support.

@Igglepigglesblankie

Also I think the stats presented by the press are deliberately misleading. If academies managed to go from 7% A grades to 17.1% A grades that’s still increasing the number of kids achieving A*s by a multiplier of around 2.4….so independents going from 16.1% to 31.5% is a similar multiplier. It just looks “bigger” because the private schools are starting from a higher baseline. I got those stats from the government website.

You better get back The Times as they think it was an inflation from 33% to 90.2%

DS’s school in the north applied an additional algorithm to his GCSE’s in 2020. He came out with much worse grades than predicted and grades less than the mock results he achieved. He was really upset. We advised him to move on and focus on his A levels as he was studying 4 A levels. But it turned out several of his friends were resitting GCSE’s in year 12 and they all without exception achieved several grades higher. These result’s affected his confidence.

There was a very interesting guidance/feedback meeting from one of the teaching unions ahead of last summer that grades were of course going to go up, but not exactly because of grade inflation. Rather it’s because students were largely assessed in a totally different way - lots of smaller pieces of assessed work typically and possibly on a smaller amount of content - which meant that they had a far better chance to show what they could do and less chance of a bad exam or a bad day causing an unexpected disaster. It’s very harmful for students who worked hard under really difficult circumstances to be constantly told they somehow had it easier or didn’t deserve what they got. I find the general sneering narrative that anyone can get an A* these days baffling and totally untrue. For what it’s worth the A Level course I teach is significantly more difficult than the equivalent course I took 2 decades ago, students in my experience certainly aren’t being dumbed down or getting undeserved grades.

@MaddieElla

It's quite annoying when grades were inflated across the board yet there are anomalies such as my DDs school who were much more strict and she suffered the consequences of that.

I rue the day they made the decision to cancel exams.

I work in FE. My college marked down. Teachers had given a lot of 4a, which got marked down to 3s by Heads of Maths and English, worried about exam boards. Really frustrating for our particular cohort of learners who struggle so much, having to retake up to 3 times.

@EmmaStone

It's so disheartening for the young people to be told every year that their grades aren't good enough. Their work isn't good enough. When will it be?

DD did her GCSEs last summer, the inconsistency between various schools and how they came to their grade conclusions was a shocker, and the government should have laid out some kind of framework. As it was, DD's (private) school, was very focused on ensuring bulletproof evidence of grades, and DD ended up doing more exams than she would have done had it been a normal year. She did 3 sets of full exams between March and June, often taking 2 or 3 exams a day, no days off as there would be in a normal exam timetable. The pressure was immense.

This contrasted with her friends at the local state school who did the odd bit of controlled work during a specific lesson time. Ultimately, I'm hoping the exams she did will help for her A Levels - at least she's had some exam practice, but she's been left with the worst of both worlds - burnt out through stress, and being told by the media that she didn't deserve her grades.

Sounds like we may have a child at the same school. My DDs academically selective school put them through an absolutely brutal process of assessment with over 30 papers in exam conditions. The justification was they wanted hard evidence that they were NOT over inflating grades.

About 12% got all 9s - similar to other years, less in fact than 2018. My DD was one of them. She is very bright, was offered academic scholarships at 11+ and worked hard but this process was very tough on her and she became very anxious to the point we almost pulled her out. Now she feels her grades are discounted because of over inflation elsewhere. It sucks.