Gcse deflated grades

[Zizzagaaaaahttss]

Feeling absolutely deflated today

All I've heard all day long is the amount of best ever amazing grades that the gcse year has been awarded.

My dd wanted to take maths, chemistry and psychology at 6th form

Her predicted grade 7 maths ( mocks came in at 8) - became a 6 even though her maths teacher said it was a certainty in January
Her 7/6 science is now a 6/5
English Lang is down a grade and geography is down 2 grades.

She now can't take maths or chemistry (or any science) a level because her grades aren't high enough.

Last week it was wall to wall doom that a levels students missed out.
Today .... silence..... and I cant even blame an algorithm and we can't appeal either.

I was watching a girl on gmb this morning opening her results saying ooooh grade 6 maths wasn't expecting that, I think i'll do a levels now

It is totally unfair on our children who have had their grades deflated before being sent to the exam boards to fit into what other children have achieved historically. My son who was hoping to get an 8 got a 6 even though all his mocks, predictions and assessments were higher. He never had a 6 the entire year 11! It is a grave injustice. Ask your school's DPOs for the data used to form any judgement, ask questions and gain context. If you genuinely feel the grade awarded is wrong ask the school to review and then ask them to appeal on your behalf - centre error. This has created a two tier system - kids who had genuine teacher assesments - not moderated - true results and kids whose teacher assessments were cautiously moderated - deflated and not changed. Write to Ofqual, go on Twitter, your local MP. It is a scandal and our children deserve better!

BBC has a submit your question going on right now, about these GCSEs and appeals.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53812998

I'm not optimistic schools will help anyone, I'd go straight to the top. My kid had for grades in one subject, over the past two years, 4-, 6, 6+, 6+, 6+. They gave him a 5 for his GSCE CAG. I asked why, here is the response. "we looked at performance throughout the two years in tests (these tend to be flattering in terms of grades as students are only tested on a very small part of the course)....exams can go both ways – students can have a bad day / questions can come up that they haven’t revised as thoroughly so on balance, and overall, we considered the results gained here as fair results."

I guess they thought my kid was going to have a bad day.

So negative and so wrong! Very likely would have got a 6 or higher.

My daughter must have been predicted a VERY bad day as hers dropped from an 8 in the mock to a 4!
Her average grade over the five years at secondary school was a 6 so even at its best it dropped by a minimum of 2 grades.
Great to get information on here to help my appeal/complaint/seething!

We are far from alone. Spread the word. Keep up the fight for our kids. Go above the schools, their hands are tied.

@ZombieFan

How will that help her do the A-levels she wants to this September She should be able to find a 6th form/college that will allow her to do the courses, on condition she gets the required grades in her autumn exams. Alternatively she can do B-Techs that are more suitable to her abilities.

"more suitable to her abilities" So you're assuming the downgraded grades match her abilities more than the teachers' predicted scores?

Hi
I am a secondary teacher.
I gave in my grades[ for Y11 pupils] and they all went down 1-2 levels before they were submitted; despite me compiling portfolio's of best work for each pupil.
SLT insisted that they could not be any higher.
I was absolutely gutted and dreading facing my pupils, who will probably feel that I've let them down.
We have been told that any attempt to discuss this with pupils/ parents may constitute gross misconduct and may lead to dismissal.

This is shocking to read. Can you write anonymously to Ofqual/the papers/Schoolsweek? What a horrible thing to ask you to do - drop 1-2 grades to fit grades from previous years.It is morally wrong. How do SLT sleep at night - ruining children's futures. Disgusting!

Thank you for sharing that. I felt that was the case. My child's headteacher has just emailed to tell me, "Staff have been instructed not to discuss the awarding of CAGs with either parents or students." "Please direct any further questions to X's head of year and not to individual class teachers."

I'll keep going forward through the process and encourage everyone affected by this be loud, to anyone listening or not listening yet.

I have put a complaint into Ofqual link above. Also planning to email new head of Ofqual. If your school will not review or appeal on your behalf go to exam board. The school DPO has to supply you with any data on which they based their decision. I asked and got a vague table with no context. Have asked for context. Slow to respond. So stressful and frustrating.

This is awful, I had no idea, it would be so bad.
My dd school on the whole were happy with the results.
Several lost highly inflated grades from the gov algorithm results, but there CAGs were realistic.
So sorry for all those affected.

their

Some schools catiously moderated and grades deflated, others did not and teachers gave CAGs based on what they thought students could get. As said a two tier system of awards. One fair, the other grossly unfair.

DD has a similar experience on results day. 4’s across the board except for one science 5. Whilst some of those 4’s were doubtless correct, subjects such as business where she had never got less than a 6 on a test or PE where her mocks had been a solid 5 just on the written paper and her teachers were confident that once the practical was graded that would be an easy 6 to both be graded as a 4 was really upsetting for her.

And It’s meant she couldn’t do any A Levels at her 6th form. She’s now doing BTECs and is looking forward but I do feel as though she’s been hard done to. Twice over. Once on results day and then forever in the future having average results when the public at large think everyone’s GCSE results are inflated. So actually her average results become poor by comparison 😟

Dilworth1234 can I please ask how you know it was 1900 schools? Very interested
Thanks

OP I think your daughter should just re-take in September. Universities do look at GCSE grades and there is little point in sound subjects for A level that she’s less interested in.

We’ve used a very good online 1-1 tutor system called mytutor for DS for topics that he’s been unsure about (and ones that I can’t remember).

It’s annoying, but taking a year out to do GCSE re-sits and then A levels would look better in the long run

Sure thing. It’s up to 1,900 state secondary schools. They clarify ‘state’ further into the article. Here is the info and link, directly from FFT. It would be nice to share this further. More and more people are becoming aware. It’s possible to correct a real tragedy for a lot kids.

Per FFT Datalab

“Over the past fortnight, secondary schools in England have submitted centre assessment grades for their Year 11 pupils to the exam boards. This has happened in response to GCSEs being cancelled this year.”

“Between 28 April and 1 June, FFT ran a statistical moderation service which allowed schools to submit preliminary centre assessment grades they were proposing for their pupils. In return they received reports which compared the spread of grades in each subject to historical attainment figures and progress data.”

“In this blogpost, we’ll take a look at some of the main findings from the service, based on the data of more than 1,900 schools – over half of all state secondaries in England – which had submitted results when the service ended on 1 June.”

“We’re going to compare it to published, school-level results for 2019 – only including the results of schools for which we have both 2019 and 2020 data and only looking at subjects for which we have enough data to form reliable conclusions.”

“That said, around 1,000 schools submitted data to FFT two or more times. “

ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2020/06/gcse-results-2020-a-look-at-the-grades-proposed-by-schools/?fbclid=IwAR1i6OB4gEvjEcBa4yCWW9xYW83S5EM1K2WiWanh-BKoqTpo1Q0V2Z9-V1g

This is one of two appeal publications from the govt. If the school hasn’t shared this one, it has one useful paragraph for those who had a single grade marked down but perhaps not so helpful if the whole of your grades were marked down.

I still think getting the government to correct the misuse of an abandoned algorithm, is the better approach, for the benefit of all those nameless kids who missed out and don’t know how to fix it. Their just 16 after all.

“Example 2
Student X’s academic record, including progress reviews and grades achieved in assessments such as mock exams and class tests, shows sustained performance at a grade 5 - 7 standard in class assessments for GCSE maths, physics and chemistry. For physics and chemistry student X’s centre assessment grades were grade 6, and for maths a grade 3.
Student X asked their school to explain the centre assessment grade and rank order position for maths. The exams officer confirmed that no mistake had been made and added that there was no possibility of a discussion about the grade and that no more information would be provided.
An exam board is likely to consider that the big difference between the centre assessment grade and student X’s academic record is surprising, all the more so given the centre assessment grades matched the academic record for other related subjects.
The exam board might think the apparently low centre assessment grade for maths should be explained and might be concerned by the school’s refusal to provide any further information.
Looking at all of these concerns together we anticipate the exam board would have grounds to suspect that the centre assessment grade for maths might not be based on an objective judgement of how student X would have performed had exams taken place and that it would investigate the possibility that malpractice or maladministration had taken place.”

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/910603/6672_-_What_to_do_if_you_have_concerns_or_questions_about_your_grades.pdf

You can submit your evidence to the government!

Please copy and paste this and share far and wide; emails, facebook, Twitter, Instagram, your local paper!

They’ve opened a public enquiry and you can submit evidence to the government until 30 September.

Our item, “The effect of cancelling formal exams, including the fairness of qualifications awarded and pupils’ progression to the next stage of education or employment.”

Part of topic,
“The impact of COVID-19 on education and children’s services“

committees.parliament.uk/work/202/the-impact-of-covid19-on-education-and-childrens-services/publications/

Along with FFT Datalab, the Association of School and College Leaders’ recommended an approach to producing centre assessed grades that adjusted them to historical performance.

www.ascl.org.uk/ASCL/media/ASCL/Help%20and%20advice/Step-by-step-to-allocating-grades-using-ASCL-approach-v2c-D-Blow.pdf

Government facing exams challenge over schools ‘advised’ to deflate grades

schoolsweek.co.uk/government-facing-exams-challenge-over-schools-advised-to-deflate-grades/

But then of course, a U Turn, Schools that deflated own grades can’t appeal, says Ofqual.

schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-that-deflated-own-grades-cant-appeal-says-ofqual/

“But David Blow, executive headteacher of the SESSET academy trust and a member of Ofqual’s exam advisory group, said: “This is completely unacceptable for the many schools and especially the many thousands of students who have been penalised as a result of schools quite rightly following [the guidance]. “I very much hope that people will stand up very publicly for those schools and students, and not accept this attempt to brush things under the carpet.””
_
It just can't stand up to scrutiny that adjusting grades, based on last year's students was not okay for Ofqual to do as it resulted “in more significant inconsistencies than can be resolved through an appeals process” and “the process of allocating grades resulted in more inconsistency and unfairness”; but it is okay for ASCL and FFT Datalab to use the same process.
_
This has most likely affected 100,000 to 200,000 students.
_
Many schools cannot or will not provide parents’ guidance on bringing Ofqual to account for this injustice, most likely due to malpractice concerns.

Keep sharing this information, any way you can.

So far I’ve contacted my local MP, Ofqual, AQA, Edexcel and a few newspapers. No one is interested.

These pupils will never get grades in line with the rest of the country and I don’t think there is a way forward.

If you know one, please let me know and I’m happy to support.

Read this:

www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/level-gcse-results-exam-appeal-lawyers-cags-a9691171.html

Many hiring lawyers to take GCSE deflation injustice further.

Thank you Moobie76.

What reaction do you get? Are they just not responding yet?

There is another upcoming question time we can try to be heard in. They are still approaching it as the standardisation was abandoned. We can share with them, it was not abandoned for 100,000 kids.

I’ll follow up with individual committee member addresses. They are in the last link below.

Ofqual questioned on summer exam results

The Education Committee questions officials from the exams regulator Ofqual on the errors made in the process of awarding this summer’s exam grades and how students who have been adversely impacted are now being supported.

On Wednesday 2 September 2020, virtual meeting At 10.00am

[email protected]

Contact Details For Each Member below

committees.parliament.uk/committee/203/education-committee/membership/

Tweet and Email Education Committee Members Today

They meet 2 September to question Ofqual on exams errors.

Copy and Share

Education Committee

Robert Halfon
[email protected]
twitter.com/halfon4harlowMP

Apsana Begum
[email protected]

Dawn Butler
[email protected]
twitter.com/dawnbutlerbrent

Jonathan Gullis
twitter.com/jegullis
www.facebook.com/jonathangullis/
[email protected]

Tom Hunt
[email protected]

Dr Caroline Johnson
twitter.com/drcarolinej
[email protected]

Kim Johnson
[email protected]

David Johnston
[email protected]
twitter.com/david4wantage
www.facebook.com/davidjohnston4wantage/

Ian Mearns
[email protected]
twitter.com/IanMearnsMP

David Simmonds
[email protected]

Christian Wakeford
[email protected]