A Level U turn

[Jargo]

Holy shit, now based on teacher predictions.

@HipTightOnions

You should have been realistic based on the individual student. This being tough is it helpful. It just knocks confidence in many cases.

My DD was given low grades in one subject 2 years ago for her GCSES.... she got a 9 in the actual exam. ... the teacher as just an incompetent. The teacher predicted her an 8.. she asked him why based on the exams she wasn't achieving an 8 level...if that was this year and OFQUAL asked for evidence... she would have been disadvantaged. So this being tough can easily backfire.

The being tough just affected her confidence in that subject... but I told her she was going great in other subjects and the day of results would show her ability.

I feel sorry for many black children...especially boys who are underpredicted at GCSE level.... that's when it's not fair.

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.

In which case, to make it fair, they should have said that’s what they were doing (although can you imagine the grade inflation?)

NOT moved the goalposts, and changed the final score, several weeks after the match was over.

and it all does depend on whether a teacher likes/supports and individual student as well.

Given this level of distrust for teachers, it make you wonder why some parents are so keen for schools to go back at any cost.

@Jargo

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?

No. 38% of teacher assessed grades were downgraded. The original teacher assessed grade is now reinstated.

Tavannach - I completely agree with what you are saying - the trouble is not all teachers were allowed to award grades in the way you are saying because they were told by senior leaders to follow exam board advice. This means some students have lost out. I'm just pointing out that this u-turn creates a new layer of unfairness - all avoidable as the government have been sitting on these exam results for weeks.

So wait, only 2% of downgraded grades have changed with today's announcement

That’s what I was alluding to earlier. That this didn’t make much difference in reality but it takes the pressure off the government and puts it back on schools.

Have all kids had their cags?

Have the CAGs been announced or did they go out last week?
Just wondering because there will be a sizeable number who think CAG is the same as UCAS prediction. It isn't.

@squiglet111

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 will have taken students from clearing so may be full.

One of the reasons I'm happy that this government has yet again done a heavy bellied flip flop, is that I trust teachers a hell of a lot more than I trust these incompetent buffoons that couldn't organise a piss up in a flipping brewery. Seriously, what are they actually for? What do they think they're for? Some of them (not looking at you Prime Minister, and your pet DC), seem immoderately aggrieved they're 1. expected to work, 2. expected to deliver, 3. called however to account when they yet again comprehensively stuff it all the way up and then squit it back out again.

You should have been realistic based on the individual student. This being tough is it helpful. It just knocks confidence in many cases.

That’s easy to say now, though. We would love to have made our predictions based on what students were capable of.

But we knew those aren’t the results they would have ended up with. We knew those grades would not survive moderation. All schools had to make tough judgements about which were more “deserving” - that’s what the ranking was for.

’Not every kid will be planning to go to university. So it shouldn't effect uni places.’

If someone’s grades cost them an offer from Oxford or Cambridge or a place on a veterinary medicine or medical course then it’s likely to be gone for good. Not all universities or all degrees are equal. Even if people can still get into the university of their choice they may miss out on their choice of course or vice versa.

CAGs weren’t necessarily announced with results. In many schools students had to request them (I expect they all did!)

@IrmaFayLear

,I agree HipTightOnions. What's there to lose by predicting all your students 3 As?
Your professionalism.

Why world you predict a student who has consistently got a C grade an A.

How would you back up your assessment?

My DD got 3 A...but if kids who were clearly D students were awarded A by their teachers..it would be a mockery.

The CAGs need to be backed up with evidence..not just a grade location they does not reflect their ability.

So they get moderated. But if they were going to get DDD anyway then it's

It is the ranking system that is the most unfair.

Teachers had to choose which students go above & below others - inevitably there would be some who had achieved very similar results to others over the year. But they can't all be ranked, say, 8th equal. They have to be ranked 8, 9, 10. Personal likes & dislikes & petty prejudices will inevitably come into it. And then you find that the cut off point between, say A & B, comes around 9. the person at 9 gets a B when their equally well performing friends get As. And that's even before you apply the algorithm.

@HipTightOnions

CAGs weren’t necessarily announced with results. In many schools students had to request them (I expect they all did!)

Yes that’s what I though, I don’t think they were wholesale given out, they will need to be now though,

The CAGs need to be backed up with evidence..not just a grade location they does not reflect their ability.

They don’t though, SandyY2K. That’s what some of us are so upset about.

’ All schools had to make tough judgements about which were more “deserving” - that’s what the ranking was for.’

All schools or all state schools? It’s easy for the government to exert pressure on state schools but I can’t see private schools being as rigorous in their assessments.

Personal likes & dislikes & petty prejudices will inevitably come into it.

That’s quite an accusation there. Can you justify it?

All schools or all state schools? It’s easy for the government to exert pressure on state schools but I can’t see private schools being as rigorous in their assessments.

All schools. It’s not about which grade they assigned. They all had to rank their students to tell the algorithm which ones to “downgrade” if it came to it.

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

Those places entered e-learning on Thursday morning. Many have now been filled, and officially accepted on UCAS, by students in the hours that followed results coming out.

DD's first choice course never entered clearing. She lost her place, as I am sure others did too. These will have then been picked up by other students holding it as insurance.

Plus lots of popular courses and universities do over offer. They know from experience that not everyone will take up their place so they routinely offer more places than they have available.

We know - as I kept having a look out of curiosity - that some of the courses in clearing for DD's subject have now been filled. There are very very few places for her course anywhere in the country now.

He's somebody promoted beyond the level of his competence - you know, like he is worried that children from disadvantaged families may one day be.

He's got 2 A Levels and a degree from Bradford university. Used to sell fireplaces and now is education minister. And had the gall to say he was worried kids would end up in jobs they weren't qualified for 🤮

You have to wonder how this Govt will ever roll out a vaccine program, let alone get children back into education.

They have had months to get this sorted & saw what happened in Scotland, yet still xxxxed it up.

I guess as their kids in private education weren't affected, they didn't care.

Wasn't there talk that exams would happen later than usual to allow extra teaching time

That wouldn't remove the disadvantage that many students are under though because the exams would be later for all pupils.

My Year 12 daughter had full, interactive online teaching throughout lockdown, completed assessments and is on track with where she should be for the start of Year 13.

If the exams are put back, all it will mean is that she and her teachers have extra time to prepare and potentially achieve higher grades than she would have done previously.

Pupils who could not access good online education will still be behind pupils who could, no matter when the exams are held.

They had to rank them but if a class is A+ ,A , A, B, B, B/C, C, C/D what’s to stop them being listed as A++, A+, A*, A, A, A/B, B, B/C?

UntamedWisteria
It is the ranking system that is the most unfair.

Teachers had to choose which students go above & below others

Personal likes & dislikes & petty prejudices will inevitably come into it.

Its almost as of you don't trust teachers to be professional.