A’Level disasters 😔😣

[OverTheRainbow88]

Any other schools been majorly hit?

Wombat thanks for that excellent summary earlier.
My ds is gcse and gets his results next week. Due to a number of things I have been really unsure how this would work for him.

So why did teachers over inflate the grades in some cases?

Because they aren't soothsayers? Because a large number of children don't do the work required to fulfil their potential, but its impossible to tell which ones?

So why did teachers over inflate the grades in some cases?

I suspect a lot of the “over inflation” will have been those children who are right on the borderline between grades especially the C/D and C/B borderlines. It’s incredibly difficult to be completely accurate- I think a lot of teachers will have gone for the more positive side of the borderline.

That’s just my suspicion though.

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-watch-write-level-results-teachers-knew-best

No, in the 90s.

They care now.

Chloe. I agree with you too! UCAS predicitions are aspirational. I am also feeling that some are just not willing to fight for their children and wanted it handed to them on a plate.

Tin hat at the ready but I honestly feel like that.

What makes me fumie about the CAGs vs UCAS is that Ofqual have used this (not for the first time) as evidence and yet, year on year, teachers are encouraged to be generous with UCAS predictions.

They are nothing like the CAGs.

Whereas GCSE has no predictions at all!!

@Phbq for the umpteenth time this is not about UCAS predicted grades it is about Centre Assessed Grades. They are not the same , predicted grades are calculated to get offers . CAG have been calculated according to parameters established by Ofqual and were formulated in May /June . They include all sorts of factors not included in predicted grades and were meant to form the basis of the grade for this year.

It has been done by an algorithm that takes into account prior data and prior schools performance

Does that mean that in some cases they are essentially awarding grades based on teachers' past performance / reputation?

I'm so sad for the young adults who have worked so hard and had such huge downgrades. It's a scandal it really is, completely unfair. I took a gcse recently and know the hard work that went into that one, the time and effort studying a number of subjects must be so intense and then to have this at the end of it...I can't imagine how they must feel.

I hope many of your children still get their uni places.

@EThreepwood

I bet the Etonians all had As*

It's a good job you didn't put any. money on it, because they didn't.

@BrutusMcDogface

God, this is horrifying. My heart really goes out to all of the teens who have been disappointed. What a massive crock of shit.

My sentiments exactly

Does that mean that in some cases they are essentially awarding grades based on teachers' past performance / reputation?

Student prior data - KS2 and GCSE
School past performance- historical data on the percentage schools have of students getting each grade.

@whenwillthemadnessend

So angry for these kids

What a year to cock up kids futures. They have given up enough.

School has to go ahead now. Pubs will have to shut if cases go up.

We can't fail anymore kids. I'm furious
Have a dd going into yr 10 in sept

This is true. They need to give pupils the chance to resit.

Im fuming, going by mocks and attainment my lad should have got the equivalent of A's, instead he got the equivalent to D's.
Younger son gets GCSE's nxt thurs, now im seriously worrying

@sunglasses123 why should we have to fight, my child worked his socks off , very consistent grades, responsible at school , 10 top grades at GCSE. Never late with homework, high standard of coursework. His grade should be assessed based on that not on some random model based on the performance of people in the year above him. He should not need his parents to fight for the correct grade.

Student prior data - KS2 and GCSE
School past performance- historical data on the percentage schools have of students getting each grade.

For individual student prior data, yes, there might well be different teachers involved and the common element is the student herself.

But for school past performance I suspect they are looking at the effects of teacher performance to a large extent.

[quote EstoPerpetua]@EThreepwood

I bet the Etonians all had As*

It's a good job you didn't put any. money on it, because they didn't.[/quote]
Indeed. Only half of them did.

[quote EstoPerpetua]@EThreepwood

I bet the Etonians all had As*

It's a good job you didn't put any. money on it, because they didn't.[/quote]
No. But there has been some overall increase in the proportion of students getting As, for example; and students at private schools would be more than 15 times as likely to benefit from this upswing in grades, than pupils at sixth form colleges.

I am sure this was not intentional; and there are reasons for this; but it is undeniably unfair.

The absolute grades are one issue; but the comparison will be telling as students go after the university places that are left.

It would be a good argument for some positive discrimination, in my opinion.

HAS ANYONE'S CHILD got what they were predicted??

Mine got exactly what he had been predicted, @PatriciaPerch. So did several of his friends. Others were disappointed. It has been very similar to any 'normal' year from that point of view. Or, in any case, very similar to how it was back in my day. I remember a friend who was predicted AAA and was an Oxford dead cert - there were no A*s then - got BCD. One grade was changed on appeal (by the school, as all the grades in that subject were two lower than predicted), but she didn't go to Oxford.

But for school past performance I suspect they are looking at the effects of teacher performance to a large extent

They’ll look at the overall school data - so that is in part a reflection of teacher performance yes. Lots of variables in there though.

What’s your worry?

@sunglasses123

Chloe. I agree with you too! UCAS predicitions are aspirational. I am also feeling that some are just not willing to fight for their children and wanted it handed to them on a plate.

Tin hat at the ready but I honestly feel like that.

Absolute bollocks. Of people didn’t give a shit about their kids these threads wouldn’t exist.

There is nothing we can do for our kids. Only the schools can appeal. Parents can’t do anything

I feel very sorry for students who have lost their university places.

Someone mentioned that her school said the rankings hadn't been followed - but from everything I have read today, most schools/colleges don't have an issue with the rankings just the grades for some students??

@manicinsomniac

I understand what posters like Hiptight and Wombat are saying but still think this seems disgracefully unfair.

The way it has been done has taken away any autonomy an individual student had over their own outcomes.

It seems like there was nothing individuals could do to improve or mess up their results in the months running up to exams - it would all be determined by an alogorithm based on demographic, quality of school and performance of other students, past and present. Nothing about their results would be based on their own motivation, hard work and progress.

An algorithm might know that in a given school, a cohort of 10 English Lit students is likely to get 3 As , 3 Bs, 2 Cs and 2Ds. It doesn't know which individual students are going to work like crazy for 3 months, which are going to get nervous, which are going to receive a university offer they can achieve in their sleep and therefore slack off etc. Teachers know the pupils and have seen their recent work. Unless, as a collective group, the given grades looked unrealistic, they should have been accepted as a professional judgement. Most secondary teachers I know spent a huge amount of time and effort making sure their predictions were statistically realistic, not emotive.

This is why the ranking was so important.

The algorithm didn’t need to know those things, but the teachers did, and would have reflected them in the ranking.