A’Level disasters 😔😣

[OverTheRainbow88]

Any other schools been majorly hit?

This isn’t true.[about the internal balancing of grades

I hope that is the case but some of the messaging put out by Ofqual has been appallingly confused and also in conflict with messaging from Dept of Education.

One of their own statements says they ignored teacher assessments other than in small cohorts which could explain the niche subject/small independent school effect.

My DD was given her CAG yesterday.

Both of her teachers went through with her all the evidence and data they’d used to come up with the CAGs

I may be missing something but the application of the Ofqual algorithm was a moderation exercise wasn’t it? Not a down grading? Though appreciate it might feel like that.

Some sort of standardisation based on previous school results would have to have been applied, using teachers assessment only would not seem to be fully reliable.

@Springersrock

My DD was given her CAG yesterday.

Both of her teachers went through with her all the evidence and data they’d used to come up with the CAGs

How did her actual awarded grades compare?

@Hyperfish101

I may be missing something but the application of the Ofqual algorithm was a moderation exercise wasn’t it? Not a down grading? Though appreciate it might feel like that.

Some sort of standardisation based on previous school results would have to have been applied, using teachers assessment only would not seem to be fully reliable.

Except where the standardisation said the lowest acheiving pupil must get a U because previously that's the case and yet this years lowest acheiving student was a solid D and the college have evidence and this was their CAG.

That isn't standardisation. That is assuming things never change and teachers can't assess properly.

@Hyperfish101

I may be missing something but the application of the Ofqual algorithm was a moderation exercise wasn’t it? Not a down grading? Though appreciate it might feel like that.

Some sort of standardisation based on previous school results would have to have been applied, using teachers assessment only would not seem to be fully reliable.

This method is also not reliable. It distributes grades based upon the previous performance of the school and the ranking system and pays very little, if any, attention to the individual.

Some sort of standardisation based on previous school results would have to have been applied, using teachers assessment only would not seem to be fully reliable.

But you can't compare exams with teacher assessments.

What if, because they must exclude external factors that would depress grades, teacher assessments are more reliable?

Obviously the university entrance system is designed to cope with the distribution of results produced by the exam system, not teacher assessments. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that teacher assessments are incorrect.

@itsgettingweird

CAG - B B distinction
Awarded grade - E E Merit

Mocks (end of September) - B C for the A levels - I can’t remember what they did with the BTEC, but she’s happy with the merit.

Cs fair enough, even Ds, but Es?

She had an unconditional offer so she’s fine with Uni, but she’s not keen on having the Es following her around

I may be missing something but the application of the Ofqual algorithm was a moderation exercise wasn’t it?

In larger cohorts it wasn’t moderation at all because the CAGs were disregarded. They just looked at the proportion of each grade in each subject and slotted the rank order in to suit.

Standardisation doesn’t look at the individual though does it? Isn’t that the point?

Standardisation doesn’t look at the individual though does it? Isn’t that the point?

But the point of an exam grade is that it is supposed to assess the individual.

@Hyperfish101

Standardisation doesn’t look at the individual though does it? Isn’t that the point?

In previous years, the grades were standardised but each student was awarded what they had earnt by their individual scores on the exams. This recognised their own effort and merit whilst also taking into account the national picture.

This year, grades have been standardised and each student awarded a grade based upon the performance of previous year groups and their rank order. It disregards individual effort and merit by prioritising the national picture.

[quote Springersrock]@itsgettingweird

CAG - B B distinction
Awarded grade - E E Merit

Mocks (end of September) - B C for the A levels - I can’t remember what they did with the BTEC, but she’s happy with the merit.

Cs fair enough, even Ds, but Es?

She had an unconditional offer so she’s fine with Uni, but she’s not keen on having the Es following her around[/quote]
I'm so sorry. That must have been such a shock.

Agree that the chances of being assessed at B's and it being totally wrong for 18 months even before they know of this system is extremely unlikely.
Best wishes to her getting it sorted

Standardisation doesn’t look at the individual though does it? Isn’t that the point?

Standardised marking ensures that work of the same quality receives the same mark. This is fine by several different markers marking the same pieces to ensure consistency. Then a “standard” is agreed.

That is not what is happening here.

This is not standardisation, this is downgrading / upgrading based on the school results from previous years
It’s bloody unfair and a complete and utter disgrace

Not being devil’s advocate but what would be a better alternative? Purely teacher assessment?

Hyperfish101

Applying an algorithm and giving results to schools prior to results day - considering and adjusting in light of pre appeals. That would probably have sorted any outliers.

Looking at algorithm results alongside CAGs and taking both into account before releasing results, ideally in consultation with schools.

Not flinging out a pretty much unworkable “well you can use mocks” at the 11th hour?

I don’t know how you solve the small class/large class issue to flatten that particular unfairness - but maybe the above would have helped with that?

I think it was going to be a disaster whatever Happened. Kids primed for exams they never took then using an assessment approach that many courses may not have been designed for.

I agree that the govt has done this in a very cack handed way. As usual.

I've woken up still feeling so sad and angry for these students (and I don't even have children and teach younger ones so it doesn't even affect me)

The lack of control over their own outcomes - that's what I think must be so crushing for them.

A computer algorithm should not be allowed to affect a child's future in favour of the child's own personality, drive, life circumstances and ability. If exams were unable to take place, it should have been teacher predictions - moderated of course.

This is going back to 2002 so perhaps not that relevant but I got four As at A level. I knew going into the exams that I had a roughly 25% chance of getting each of:
A B B B
A A B B
A A A B
A A A A
The first two were not good enough for my university offer. The second two were. So I worked harder than I ever worked in my life because getting one of those second two sets of grades were more important to me than anything.
But a computer wouldn't have given them to me. There were two or three exceptionally bright pupils in my year and there was crossover of subjects - almost identical subjects in one case. There's no way I would have been ranked above them and wouldn't have been first (possibly not even 2nd) in any of my subjects. And we were at a very average, not especially high achieving comprehensive.
So I would probably have got B B B B (at best, looking at these posts) and missed out on my choice of university.

End of the world? Of course not. Totally crushing and likely to rankle for many years? Absolutely!

I have no skin in the game but I'm still hopping mad. Of course in time these young people will move on with their lives. But the Government in a year like this, should have adopted a "leave no young person behind" approach. Going forward, things are going to be hard as we navigate the new normal, this just made things a lot worse for many young people.

Under this system, I would have probably have got 3 Ds, maybe even Es. I was a straight A student in an inner London school, poor background. Previous years' results all pretty poor, my year group were stronger, we would have all failed according to this algorithm.

My poor grandson has lost his place at Newcastle. He was predicted bbbc based on CAGs and was awarded Dddd. He is absolutely devastated. 6th form college, north east.

And they didn't do mocks so no fall back position for him.

It’s not just that CAGs were ignored and purely the ranking used (for cohorts over 15), and that they were “standardised” against the schools prior data, but they were also “standardised” in regard to the amount of each grade that there should be nationally. It’s all explained in this link, including data from a real school, showing how in each of the last three years they got 2-3 A and no U, but ended up with a U and only one A this year.
It’s appallingly poor mathematics - their model completely over fits the data.

The school produced a file of evidence for each CAG ( NB these are not predicted grades ) if Ofqual doubted a grade they could have called for evidence . If they felt a school had overestimated it’s grades they could have called for evidence , instead they randomly allocated grades.
This

The logic the algorithm seems to use (broken down to brutal simplicity) seems to have been 'a school had a U in this subject in the past 3 years, so there must be a U this year'. And that ain't necessarily so.

This is all going to happen again next week with GCSEs, with far more students. I'd much rather have a year of grade inflation and a U turn.