A Level U turn

[Jargo]

Holy shit, now based on teacher predictions.

Please spare a thought for those students - and there are lots of them - whose teachers who did not uplift their grades.

They will have got what they teachers assessed, based on their work throughout the duration of their A levels... which is fair.

I still have issues with my child’s CAG. It doesn’t bare any resemblance to his mocks or to his term 4 assessments. Hopefully there will be a process to appeal the CAGs.

Here we go - the blame will shift from the evil algorithm to the teachers.

No reflection on you incidentally Coffeandbeans!

@bivgig do you have evidence of the Centres that over predicted?
As far as I am aware, staff in schools worked extremely hard to award fair grades. These grades were then checked by Heads of Dept, then Senior Management, processes often taking 6 weeks.

Students tend, on average, to do sightly worse in exams than predicted so CAGs may be slightly higher than expected.

But OP, feel free to take the usual MN opportunity to blame teachers, give 'em a good kicking and hand them all the blame. You'll bloody vote Tory again now, won't you?

It's tough on those who got "realistic" CAGS, but all this talk of appealing them... it will never end until every pupil has 3 A*s.

I was just reading that Ofqual observed that some schools had massively overpredicted for their students. Why on earth then weren't particular schools approached? Or at the start of the process schools should have been warned that overpredicting without evidence as to the capability behind such predictions would result in an Ofsted markdown (or appropriate sanctions for private schools not bound by Ofsted eg hefty fines).

Because up to 60% of people may now receive grades lower than they were given last Thursday

They got higher than the teacher predicted based on their school's performance and whether it was on a well-off area. I'd put more faith in the teacher's predictions being more faithful to their ability than that classist bullshit.

@HipTightOnions

Please spare a thought for those students - and there are lots of them - whose teachers who did not uplift their grades.

They are now at a disadvantage as their grades will appear low compared to those whose grades are “de-downgraded”.

They will be in the same position as the majority of the population who didn't get a levels in 2020 though. Many of the students who have now been upgraded still won't be able to get into the University of their choice this year either so it isn't much of an advantage to them.

@SandyY2K

Please spare a thought for those students - and there are lots of them - whose teachers who did not uplift their grades.

They will have got what they teachers assessed, based on their work throughout the duration of their A levels... which is fair.

No, it’s not fair. We were very tough with our CAGs - because we knew they were going to go through moderation.

Other schools were very generous with their CAGs - because they knew they were going to go through moderation.

Can you see the problem?

I do wonder what exactly you have to do nowadays to be kicked out of the cabinet. Does Gavin Williamson have to start actually setting fire to schools before he’s sacked as Secretary of State for Education?

@mbosnz

GW needs to resign

Also, DC, BJ. . .

I'd like nothing less to see the back of Johnson but part of me wants him to stay rather than doing a David Cameron and fucking things up then leaving it for somebody else to sort out. He wanted to be PM so he should be there and doing the job rather than buggering off on holiday.

Now the GCSEs, hopefully this Thursday will be less of a shitstorm than predicted. Next they need to work out what they are doing for the soon to be year 11s and year 13s who have, through no fault of the teachers, had their education screwed up this year.

Or at the start of the process schools should have been warned that overpredicting without evidence as to the capability behind such predictions would result in an Ofsted markdown

We kind of were. We knew all along that moderation would bring results in line with recent years’.

and whether it was on a well-off area.

No.

some centres hugely over predicted and others followed exam board advice about how to

Can you link to the evidence for this?

If I am a teacher with 4 students I expect in my professional opinion to achieve A I will assess them at that grade. I realise that circumstances on the day - exam nerves, broken heart, couldn't sleep the night before for example- could mean that one of my students might not make that grade on the day. But, importantly, I cannot predict which one, because you know, I'm a professional, not magic. I know all 4 are capable and working at that level. So I use my knowledge of the work they have actually done to set the grade.

Hasn’t the general principle always been that you don’t get marked down on appeal? If you appeal a result and it’s found that you should have received a lower grade you get to keep the higher one. I can’t understand why any school would have been ‘tough’ knowing that.

I agree HipTightOnions. What's there to lose by predicting all your students 3 As? So they get moderated. But if they were going to get DDD anyway then it's a big win if they get BBB. Now they're all going to be clutching 3 As in their hot hands and be demanding Russell Group places and some low-tariff institutions will be staring at empty seats.

@areyoubeingserviced

Good news, but I wish they just postponed the exam

how would you do that though practically.... you have a load of 18 year olds who would have to take exams with no study since about March?

I'd like nothing less to see the back of Johnson but part of me wants him to stay rather than doing a David Cameron and fucking things up then leaving it for somebody else to sort out. He wanted to be PM so he should be there and doing the job rather than buggering off on holiday.

You're not wrong there. I can't believe he's off living out his Fucking Famous Five fantasies, instead of actually attempting (even if there's precious little chance of him ever being able to) to effectively lead and govern the country.

@AuntyPasta

I do wonder what exactly you have to do nowadays to be kicked out of the cabinet. Does Gavin Williamson have to start actually setting fire to schools before he’s sacked as Secretary of State for Education?

Hasn’t the general principle always been that you don’t get marked down on appeal?

No, not if you are asking for a re-mark on an actual exam you actually did, it can go either way ...

Of course that's not the case here.

@TunaWhite

Because up to 60% of people may now receive grades lower than they were given last Thursday

They got higher than the teacher predicted based on their school's performance and whether it was on a well-off area. I'd put more faith in the teacher's predictions being more faithful to their ability than that classist bullshit.

So would I.

Hi Valencia - by saying some centres overpredicted I wasn't suggesting teachers gave completely unreasonable predictions ( I don't believe that) just that some centres made sure the grades they entered matched the algorithm- i.e were in line with the three year trend - others didn't. Those centres are now stuck as many teachers gave grades lower than those they thought a student was capable of purely because they were following the advice - it is not true as one poster stated above that grades wouldn't have been given which were lower than expected. They were as ultimately if you had a good group and for example you believed 60% could get A/Bs you were stuck if your centre told you to only give 50% A/Bs. I guess now the government doesn't care as it becomes the teachers fault!

So wait, only 2% of downgraded grades have changed with today's announcement? Why is everyone thinking it is a celebration if that is the case?

Not every kid will be planning to go to university. So it shouldn't effect uni places. If a uni had to reject people they would still be looking for students to replace, so they might just take the ones that had been rejected previously. Doubt they would all be full based grades before the correction.

They had the perfect opportunity to regard this year as an exception, leave it out of any league tables etc and go with teacher assessments for results. If a fecking pandemic, cancelled exams and closed schools don’t count as an extraordinary event what does?

I believe my DD fell foul of the Governments algorithm. DD attends a large sixth form college in a less affluent area. We always expected good but not stellar grades so she was naturally disheartened to receive CCD. She is delighted to find she is now BBC which is a fair and accurate reflection of her ability.
She was very fortunate as her uni place was unconditional but I really feel for some of her friends that were turned down by their first and second choice universities.
What a total fudge!