To think that this is excellent news in the absence of exams

[scoutingfornarwhals]

Gavin Williamson has said - He also reiterated that there would be "no algorithms whatsoever" used in determining A-level, AS and GCSE grades, with marks "firmly in the hands of teachers".

At last, the government are showing faith in teachers, i can relax about the exam results as my DCs teachers know them and they will get appropriate grades whether high, average or low.

It's about bloody time.

I think it is the best option in the absence of exams. I do share the concern about the reaction of parents who are either entitled, unable to cope with disappointment, or have an overinflated view of their child's abilities in the subject.

I wonder if the regulations on this could include something that makes it very clear that a school cannot be sued?

@Smileyaxolotl1

cocopogo

Teacher assessment doesn’t mean it’s just based on assessments in class. It means that they will look at the data. I wouldn’t worry if I were you. No school would ever give a school assessed grade lower than a child has achieved on a mock.

That's exactly what happened to DH in two subjects last year, despite the fact that the mock was on the full curriculum and based on a locked past paper. We had to get the grades changed with an appeal. The past paper only formed a percentage of the final grade.

These past two years have been incredibly tough on exam students and teachers. There is no perfect answer and this will not suit everyone. Who knows what long term impact this will have on these students and the overall exam results system.

Btechs were teacher assessed and have always struggled with not getting great recognition because no one ever fails them🙄
The reality is every year quite a lot of students underperform and fail in exams. But not teacher is going to reflect that this year, so grade inflation will be huge.

Not exactly fair though, although I don't know what else they can do.
All other children don't get the advantage of teachers knowing them and what they are capable of. I imagine some will get much better marks just because of it.
However they can't do the exams in the normal way.

Ofqual are planning to “spot check” evidence. Schools where grades are massively out of line with where you’d expect them to be are more likely to be spot checked.

I wonder if the regulations on this could include something that makes it very clear that a school cannot be sued?

Sometimes schools do get it wrong so there needs to be that option.

The reality is every year quite a lot of students underperform and fail in exams. But not teacher is going to reflect that this year, so grade inflation will be huge

The reality is that we are never going to be able to compare this year's and last year's (and maybe next year's who may have the worst deal yet) cohorts with the normal situation.

They haven't done exams so it's unfair to predict what would happen if they had done them. Some kids perform well in their class and homework but not in exams, so you have to go by that continual performance and you can't treat it as if they have had an exam. Also it's an unprecedented global pandemic, you can't allow these cohorts to be continually fucked over with further education and career prospects because of it.

@Awalkintime

ouchmyfeet

How do you inflate grades when evidence is needed and is checked by peers, within clusters and externally by independent bodies?

Of course it won't be worthless, it will be based upon two years of hard work which is going to contribute towards the evidence that the assessments and other work will give the teachers to come up with an appropriate grade which reflects that evidence.

If my child has worked hard and provided solid evidence for a grade 4 (random number) then they will deserve the grade 4 that they get. If they have been lazy and done next to no work and the evidence suggests they deserve a grade 2 then they can have their grade 2 as the teachers will know that.

DD is in Year 11 and I think it's a positive thing, however...

...her school seem have done nothing but continual assessment since they went back in September.

It's great from the POV that we can have a lot of confidence in the getting accurate grades, but I feel sorry for them, as I assume it will just be more of the same until they leave.

Luckily DD is pretty resilient and self-motivated but it must be awful for the kids that are struggling.

It's a bad idea for several reasons.

Firstly there will be grade inflation. And, guess what, it'll probably favour the middle classes. It'll also be worse than last year where some schools put them well up (one local private school gave everyone 9s for all, despite their normal range being only about 5% 9s-they normally got more 5/6s than 9s) so you'll get schools putting it up further to try and outdo the other schools that are putting it up.

Grade inflation works a number of ways.

1. People will look at the year and discount it/mentally knock it down a notch or two.
2. People who got a genuinely deserved 7, will be regarded as the same as the person who was inflated 2 grades.
3. People will be doing courses that they're not suitable for. I'd be interested to see the A-level drop out rate for pupils who had their GCSE grades inflated.
4. Actually the children (I've a current year 12) don't feel they've deserved it. I've heard her talking with friends from various schools, and they've actually found it a confidence knocker. They don't feel that they deserve those grades when they've been boosted up and it makes them question their ability in other things too.

You've then got the pressure on teachers. You have a student. You know that they should definitely get a C in your subject, and with a lot of work push it up to a B. They tell you that they have a university offer to their dream place of AAA.
Then you'll get parent threats, bribery, and the pupils will know exactly where to blame if they don't get the result they/their parent wants.

I don't think it's a good thing. it's the government making sure teachers are in the firing line again.

I trust my son's school and teachers to give fair grades. I'm also worried that son may get grade 6 instead of the 7 needed for his a level course

You've then got the pressure on teachers. You have a student. You know that they should definitely get a C in your subject, and with a lot of work push it up to a B. They tell you that they have a university offer to their dream place of AAA
Then you'll get parent threats, bribery, and the pupils will know exactly where to blame if they don't get the result they/their parent wants

This doesn’t reflect y experience last year at all.

Terrible idea.

Teachers used to mark me down all the time in coursework and mock exams.

(Just because I was quiet and minded my own business...? And probably because im ethnic.)

E.g. GCSE english predicted grade D, actually got an A.
One of many examples...

It's probably bad news for my DS. Right from primary school onwards he has consistently performed better in exams than his teachers ever predict- in and out of school. I don't know why, but he just seems to thrive in exam conditions. My DD was the opposite and would have been really happy for her teachers to predict her grades but DS now feels that he is doomed.

@MrsAvocet

It's probably bad news for my DS. Right from primary school onwards he has consistently performed better in exams than his teachers ever predict- in and out of school. I don't know why, but he just seems to thrive in exam conditions. My DD was the opposite and would have been really happy for her teachers to predict her grades but DS now feels that he is doomed.

From my own experience, teachers do play favorites a lot.

rezoom

I agree work is never at a set level but peppered with different skills from other levels and might include more or less of one level's skills at different times.

I'm not sure what the criteria is for GCSE assessments as I assume the government won't release it in good time...they never do. If they are using the best fit model then that would mean a child who has 2 or 3 gaps would be awarded it and those with 2 or 3 gaps at 8 would get an 8.

However in other year groups they can only get that assessment if they have met all the criteria which is how we assess following what the government as us to do. It is not a best fit model. They are allowed one area of weakness such as handwriting or spelling to account for things like dyspraxia etc but if they have 2 or 3 gaps they wouldn't get it. So if they follow that model, a child with 2 or 3 gaps at 8 would get a 7.

That is not under assessing, that is accurately assessing what they can do following how we have been asked to undertake them. Plus they need to be secure in that area for it to be awarded, not just thrown in that skill because it is expected. They have used it with accuracy and frequently to improve their work.

BalancedIndividual

A teacher has to provide evidence and 'this is my favourite' isn't evidence that an objective has been met and will not wash in a moderation meeting.

I have never heard of a teacher assessing based on favourites or providing that kind of evidence at a moderation cluster before.

Here we go - parents having a go at the grades the teachers will be giving their child - and they have not even had their grades yet!!!!

If your child underperforms all year, then gets consistently good exam marks then I don't understand why you are assuming they will get a low teacher grade. Those marks will be based on past performance - si if they have good previous exam grades recorded then there is no issue.

Teachers are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

I’d like to know what the people saying this is a terrible idea would prefer?

Given the batshit nature of this cohort’s course, what do people think should happen?

@singsingbluesilver

This is what will happen.

Teachers and schools will work really hard, put in hours and hours going through every individual student's past performance. hey will look at the data they have collected on assessments for years. they will look at any coursework, classwork, anything, that each individual students has done and handed in. They will agonise over those who are borderline. They will discuss in their departments, with the head of dept, with the head of dept's line manager.

The senior leaders will look at the data. They will deliberate and compare to the results of previous years. They will compare to the results nationally and locally over previous years. This will take yet more hours and hours.

They will go back to the head's of dept and ask them to look again at the results if they feel they are too high or two low. The head of dept and the rest of the dpt will go back through the results and agonise some more. this will take hours.

Finally the results will have been entered into the system and checked and rechecked for accuracy. All of the staff involved will have worried and stressed and been worn to a frazzle.

On results day some parents will come on MN and complain that their child has been hard done by, that teachers have given high grades to their pets, and their child is a genius, but has hidden their academic talents for the past 11 years of schooling (for some bizarre reason), and so the teachers have done them wrong. Will threaten to sue the school. Will launch more time consuming appeals.

I know this is what will happen at my DDs school - I hope the last para doesn't happen!

@Awalkintime

BalancedIndividual

A teacher has to provide evidence and 'this is my favourite' isn't evidence that an objective has been met and will not wash in a moderation meeting.

I have never heard of a teacher assessing based on favourites or providing that kind of evidence at a moderation cluster before.

The evidence will be the work they have been grading the child on up to that point, which itself was marked with bias.

As someone who has been marked down by teachers on many instances during my education, but passed all my exams with flying colors, I can assure you that favoritism and discrimination are real.

I was given a D in my english GCSE mock exam, just because the teacher didnt like something about me. I got an A in the actual. (And I can assure you that my mock exam standard was no different to the actual).

Same thing happend at Uni for another subject.

If this has never happened to you, fair enough, you might not know about it.

But some of my teachers didnt even try to hide the fact they just didnt like me, and were open about it.

The worst part is, I was always well behaved and actually very obviously clever. The only reason I can think of some teachers marked me down, is that they just didnt like seeing an ethnic minority who was doing clever or doing well.

I'm a teacher of GCSE and A Level and I am dreading predicting. Every year we predict grades based on mocks and assessments and we have some big surprises. I especially feel awful for my a level students; if they are between a B and C what do I predict them? I think it's inevitable that we will over inflate the grades as you want the best for your students and want o give them the benefit of the doubt. It feels like such a responsibility to decide

wanderlove

I thought you were assessing not predicting?

I haven’t looked at it much

But I prefer the school to use mini tests based on content taught - which is not mandatory iirc

I think Ds school with use them but not sure