A’Level disasters 😔😣

[OverTheRainbow88]

Any other schools been majorly hit?

We really weren’t overly optimistic in our grading. If a student was a genuine borderline between a D/E grade for example, we did give the D but wouldn’t have given a C. We’ve had students go from Ds - Us. Only one student was predicted an A in our whole A level over 3 classes and got a C.

I suspect there are some fantasy grades from school's who have no evidence of that pupils achievements.

I’m sure this has happened but this is absolutely not the case for the school I’ve been linked with. The grades submitted were the same (or in a couple of cases worse!) than their mocks and some have been downgraded two grades.

It’s an easy narrative that most teachers were too generous, but some of these results make absolutely no sense. Hopefully the appeals process will sort it out,

Does anyone know the rationale behind the down grading?

• Schools provided to Ofqual (i) ranking within subject and (ii) predicted grades. We always knew the ranking was key because grades would be subject to moderation.
• Teachers everywhere tended to over-predict grades. This is natural - we are optimistic and want the best for our students.
• Some schools (like mine) looked at the grades we had predicted (much better than previous years’ results!) and realised (a) sadly, they were just not realistic and (b) they’d never get through Ofqual’s moderation process. So we revised them downwards.
• Other schools submitted their higher grades.
• Overall schools reported a 12% improvement in grades this year, which is unheard of.
• Ofqual’s algorithm did what it was always intended to do, and reduced the “inflated” grades based on data it holds about schools’ and pupils’ past performance. (For example, it would recognise if a school had an exceptionally high-performing A level cohort from its earlier GCSE results.)
• It turned out that the schools predicting the biggest increases tended to be schools with lower prior results. The reasons for this have not really been explored.
• The media spun this as sinister algorithms “targeting” disadvantaged children in a “postcode lottery”.
• It is true that an exceptional student in a school with historically lower results might lose out. That’s also true for a school which has genuinely improved significantly in the last year.
• That’s why in England there will now be an appeal process.
• Simply abandoning Ofqual’s moderation would disadvantage children in schools like mine that reined in our predictions before submitting them.

I think the Government are aware there are some unjust grades been given out hence the last minute mocks appeal announcement. Head of local Grammar being quite vocal about how the headline stats ok but some individuals been let down badly. Most local schools are silent so far which says a lot.

Saw on another thread a suggestion about the mocks exam script being needed for an appeal and grades just submitted by school would not be enough - that isn’t likely to be the case is it?

I would never have closed schools nor cancelled exams. I was saying on here that wsa unacceptable and wrong from day 1. Anyway we are where we are. i think in England you can sit the exam this year if you choose as well which may be an answer for some particularly in careers where A level grades are used (eg in London law firms you need as a minimum AAB A level grades even just to apply and plenty of companies look at A level grades as they do not quite trust the "first from XYZ ex poly they never heard of". So do consider the sitting exams options where possible.

"
Students participating in the autumn series of exams

Students who do not feel their calculated grade reflects their ability will have the opportunity to sit an exam in the autumn term. AS and A level exams will take place in October and GCSE exams in November.

Our aim is for A level results to be awarded before Christmas. Universities representatives have assured us that universities will be as flexible as possible in their admissions.

Any student wanting to understand the implications for university admission of taking these autumn exams should speak to the university from which they have an offer after receiving their calculated grades in the summer."

Jaxhog, there is something there. If for example you have ten borderline C/D pupils, in the exam, a few will have not had breakfast/had a row at home/cock up the question etc, and so you will have a mixture of Cs and Ds from them. Any of them could get a C on a good day, and any of them could get a D on a bad day. How do you predict ? It isn't wildly inflating grades to predict them all Cs, but it isn't what they would come out of an exam with.

Our worst one was a boy who interviewed at Cambridge, As in every essay, mock, coursework etc, and then has been given a D. Depending on the fine print of the mock offer, we'll be appealing that one!

It's all very well being philosophical about it as adults but when I was 18 your A level results were the be all and end all. There felt like tonnes of pressure and fear rather than learning for the joy of it

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

It isn't downgrading as such. It is standardising the teacher assessed grades so that results across the country are as "normal" as possible. I.e. broadly in line with what schools had achieved in that subject over the past few years. Obviously teachers want to assume the very best of their students, but if their optimistic grades are granted across the board, it does mean that candidates with really optimistic or inexperienced teachers could get better results than those with realist or experienced teachers. Also universities and employers are likely to recognise grades were inflated compared to "normal" years, and would inflate entry requirements or mentally downgrade people. Each year people are disappointed with grades. I think it is important not to project your disappointment onto the poor kids caught in this, and help them to move on with their lives if at all possible, even if you are appealing in the background or preparing for exams in October. The news reporting on this is so negative, that I reckon loads of people are going to feel hard done by even though results are actually up as a whole, and they may have done far better than had they sat an exam.

Sorry, not 12%. Actually 40% of predicted grades were judged to have been over-generous!

Local private schools have had some strange downgrades too.

I was thinking the same thing! I bet the Etonians all had As*

Well the private sector do seem to have benefited from the algorithm:

twitter.com/michaelgoodier/status/1293835511266713601

Not had time to dig into the data underneath but it fits with what I'm hearing reported anecdotally. Local comp has a lot of downgrades despite a track record of remarkably accurate predictions going back years.

Mixed intake rather than all deprived but does have high FSM quotient and many E2L speakers.

Etonians have been downgraded like the rest, hearing from friends with a DS there that in one subject A and B grades were downgraded to E and U because it was a new specification this year, so the school had no historic data. Ofqual applied the national curve to the school for that subject, rather than considering the fact that the school has never had a student with a grade lower than a B in that subject.

It seems to be the case that larger cohorts have been more severely downgraded than larger ones. I am aware of a really ludicrous situation where a student has been downgraded to a C in Maths (class of 25) but the CAG of an A has been allowed to stand for Further Maths (class of 6).

Any of them could get a C on a good day, and any of them could get a D on a bad day. How do you predict?

We went with what they would get on a normal day so they would have been a mixture of Cs and Ds.

For UCAS, they’d have been predicted Cs but for this purpose it had to be what they were most likely to get.

We have had over half of our Science students drop 2 grades, with these grades being at least 1 grade lower than a mock. We have had straight A* students devastated today with Cs and Ds. We have even had 2 students in each class given a U, as we had a U last year, but their mocks are at least a C. We have had an awful day so far and it isn't over yet.

Happily, BTEC are exactly what we submitted, but we were sampled early for a coursework unit and they have used this well for giving a grade for an exam unit.

I don't have a child in this year group but I am still pretty annoyed. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to some of these grades, it's as if they have decided on a certain percentage for each grade then randomly picked schools to downgrade to achieve this result. And I get that each year throws up kids who mess up their exams but again randomly picking candidates to reflect this is totally unfair.

I agree with the guy from campaign for real education, he said that all kids should get their predicted grades and then on certificate, there should be a small note stating these grades are based on predictions not exams. Not ideal but allows most kids to take the next step and seems fair more logical. Plus most employers in the future will understand what this means.

PurpleDaisies, we did the same, so some went up, and others went down.

My niece was at a private school and had two subjects downgraded. She has missed out on both first and second choice universities

Thanks for the replies re: downgrading.
Expecting sons GCSE results next week! Keeping positive.

We also have a few who we predicted lower than their mocks, so the mock offer (again, if it holds true) will be very useful for them.

I also have a Year 11 DC so all this to go through again next week!

I think I'm going to suggest to DC1 (Year 13) that on his CV he puts 'School submitted grades - BBB; Awarded grades due to Coronavirus - BBC' to show there was a difference.

I'm not involved with schools or with any impacted children but I can't get over how utterly unfair this is on these students.

I utterly cocked up my mocks due to family issues and went from predicted Cs to straight As because I worked to regain ground. I'm sure there were plenty more who got worse mocks because they didn't put in the effort until the proper exams but still pulled through. This entire cohort have lost that opportunity.

We have had over half of our Science students drop 2 grades, with these grades being at least 1 grade lower than a mock. We have had straight A students devastated today with Cs and Ds. We have even had 2 students in each class given a U, as we had a U last year, but their mocks are at least a C. We have had an awful day so far and it isn't over yet.*

That’s bloody disgraceful! So children predicted Cs get Us not based on their ability but because last year someone else did.

What a joke!

DD1's no1 uni choice have pulled her offer as it's a heavily over-subscribed course her second choice was unconditional, but she's still in bits. She was predicted AAA and got BBC. DD2 was predicted BBC and got CCE. One of their friends was predicted CCC and got EEU