If they f***ING delay the GCSE results I will not be accountable for my actions

[ScrapThatThen]

They need to sort it out before Thursday or allow centre assessed grades.

I work in children's mental health. Stop heaping unfairness on unfairness and uncertainty on uncertainty. Give them 2 weeks notice of where their life goes next fgs.

I have 8 students who I can evidence could achieve a C. If they took the exam, chances are some wouldn’t get it - they’d get a D. I have no way of knowing which ones. So - who do I mark down?

This^

Why is it so hard for people to understand it's not teachers marking up. It's basing CAGs on achievement without knowing who would have a cold, panic or whatever else in the day.

Why should student A be assumed to be that person when student B could have easily been so?

It is appalling that they have had months to iron out the anomalies, check back with schools, get any extra evidence etc. I was in tears last week, even though I do not have DC going through this (am a teacher with a 6th firm tutor group so helping them make begging calls to Unis).
I hadn't heard about a delay for the GCSEs, but I think it would be preferable to the shambles we saw last week.

If it were public schools who were being disproportionately affected by this alogarithm, you could guarantee this government would use CAG assessment.

I know local private schools had issues with A level downgrades and suspect will be same with the gcse results.

Please no to that - my 16 year old is not eating or sleeping - the pressure is horrendous and anxiety is through the roof

I'm dependent schools have had an issue. Whilst on the flip side they also had the largest A* rise in percentage across all types of school.

The issue is across the board - more impact on large schools than small. Best everyone sticks together rather than dividing down line. The government is at fault and needs to fix this shit show.

The stress of delay would be intolerable for many, and I think just drag out the bad press for the government. My money is on CAG's being used as the only 'popular' way out for Boris.

Give the students the grades their teachers have submitted. These are based on ACTUAL assessments.

NO! Schools’ assessments are subjective and are (legitimately) marked to different standards for different purposes.

Giving students their CAGs harms as many students as if helps. Those in schools that did not uplift grades - ie that stuck to the guidelines - would then be at a disadvantage.

@Macguffin69 Where did you get the idea that public schools weren’t disproportionately affected? or is this extrapolated from one subject case again I.e Latin?

My money is on CAG's being used as the only 'popular' way out for Boris.

Mine, too, although it would be grossly unfair.

“My future is ruined because my school didn’t inflate my grades” isn’t such a catchy slogan for a placard, though.

CAGS are the least bad option.

I say this as a mother of a boy who is a top of his Yr 11 class at a high achieving, tiny little indy. He will likely be fine. He will get mostly 9s.

We are really happy for other kids to get lots of 9s too. He is the kind of kid who will be so-called disadvantaged if there is grade inflation. We don't think this is a significant risk.

We are okay with CAGS.

I would be curious to know if the Scottish Tories who were baying for John Swinney (our Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills) to resign last week - they tabled a no confidence motion in Holyrood - are now calling for motions of no confidence in the English Education secretary. I doubt it. They seem to have gone very quiet.

Ah but Gavlar Williamson is all about 'doing it for the children' In 25 years of teaching I have never seen such incompetence (and as much as it pains me I include Gove the vile bastard).

As I understand it the issue with CAG's is that not all schools assessed them in the same way and that is why it would be unfair.

Also it makes 2020 a blip year where eg everyone did 30% better than previous years which isn't really fair on them either.

CAGS are the least bad option.

No. 60% of grades were not “downgraded” / 60% of grades were not inflated to start with (take your pick).

These 60% will be relatively devalued if CAGs are used, and students at schools that did not uplift their CAGs will be disadvantaged.

Cags are not fair-merely unfair to a different set of children.

Your dc's school has done cags as best they can. They've worked for a few years on being more accurate on predictions and are pretty confident.

The school down the road from you hasn't done as much work on it, and they have done then generously and then added a grade on because they think they will be moderated down (as I saw someone say their school was told to)

These GCSE students are competing for the same 6th form places. So the students in the first school find that they're being refused a-level choices and even places due to having grades 1-2 places below the other.
They are being discriminated against for having more honest teachers.

For A-level you will get the same but struggle over uni places.

I don't think the algorithm was fair, but cags would equally well not be fair. I have a GCSE dd who will probably be hit by the algorithm.

A knee jerk reaction giving way for popular opinion is not what is needed. Cags basically means their results won't be taken seriously. And for those with honest results, it means that they're doubly discriminated against. They do not have a raised result, but people will assume it has been raised.

Yes, more work needed to be done, but they had limited time to produce something they never, until this year realised they might need.
Personally I felt right at the beginning when they first announced it would be cancelled they should have said everyone restarts the year they are currently in. It would mean raising the compulsory school age by a year which seems to be a popular thought, and this year would get extra time to prepare. It would also be better for disadvantaged children to have not effectively lost half a year, but gained extra time.
But it would have taken confidence from a government that was still pretending lock down might be finished in 3 weeks.

Did you know that more students got in to their first choice uni than ever before? Including those from deprived background?

I'm not sure it is a majority of a-level students feeling it's unfair-just a vocal group.

Schools all knew that their grades would be subject to moderation, and many therefore self-moderated before submitting CAGs.

Moving the goalposts now would be really unfair to students at those schools!

YANBU.

I would trust teacher assessments far more then yet another Government being incompetent.

I live in area that has a 6th form college who's grades have been down graded by 38% solely because the so called Algorithm does not take into account that it is a 6th form college have a larger amount of students taking A levels then a High School.

I would trust teacher assessments far more then yet another Government body being incompetent.

Trouble is that if the GCSE teacher grades are 40% too high (like the A levels), and pupils are just handed the teacher grades, you're going to have sixth form colleges that simply can't take all the students who have the grades for entry to the courses, so they'll then have to "cherry pick" who actually gets the places. You'll also have pupils who will struggle to manage their A level or NVQ or whatever as they're on a course at a level too high for them. All it will do is kick the problem down the line. Ofqual has had months to sort this out - some senior officials in the dept need to have their contracts cut short as they're clearly incapable of their job. Not only did they allow this to happen, they didn't even notice it!

I've read about algorythms being bad for pupils in low scoring schools but no-one has said much about it being bad for boys. We all know boys leave it to the last minute and ignore course work/mocks. Mine all had really bad gcse predictions and then pulled it out of the bag in the real ones.

To reduce already low teacher predictions further would have been so very different to what happened in reality

Also it makes 2020 a blip year where eg everyone did 30% better than previous years which isn't really fair on them either

Does it matter? The vast majority will move on to other qualifications. No plumber is going to be employed on the basis of his grade 7 in religious education, it will be his BTEC or City and Guilds which matters. It might make the process of shifting through uni applications for popular subjects like medicine more difficult but ultimately, the A level grade will be make or break as to whether they get on the course.

I would trust teacher assessments far more

So how come they've had to be moderated down by 40% to come in line with previous years?? The only conclusion to that is that teachers unrealistically uplifted grades. There are no winners in this- schools & teachers should have been more honest, Ofqual should have been more competent.

For those blaming Boris, you do realise the exact same problem happened in Scotland that has a different government, don't you???

Trouble is that if the GCSE teacher grades are 40% too high (like the A levels), and pupils are just handed the teacher grades, you're going to have sixth form colleges that simply can't take all the students who have the grades for entry to the courses, so they'll then have to "cherry pick" who actually gets the places.

Yes, and eligible students whose schools that did not inflate CAGs would lose out.

@itsgettingweird

I have 8 students who I can evidence could achieve a C. If they took the exam, chances are some wouldn’t get it - they’d get a D. I have no way of knowing which ones. So - who do I mark down?

This^

Why is it so hard for people to understand it's not teachers marking up. It's basing CAGs on achievement without knowing who would have a cold, panic or whatever else in the day.

Why should student A be assumed to be that person when student B could have easily been so?

Yes, the use of the word 'inflation' is basically a lie. These 2 posters have explained why grades based on CAGs/predictions will be slightly higher overall, but still entirely fair and accurate at the individual level.