Will a GCSE grade 7 from one school be equal to a grade 7 from another?

[katieloves]

In the eve of Gavin Williamson’s big announcement regarding GCSEs and A’level my annoyance at this whole situation has resurfaced. The current year 11 and 13s have been treated terribly. Considering they’ve barely been in school during their entire course how on earth are teachers meant to fairly grade each student? And how can we know that all grades are fair when there’s no grade boundaries etc. and not much work done in school to base grades on?

It's a crap system, but I'm not sure that without using some kind of algorithm or some form of exam, anything else is actually possible.

As others have said, as long as the kids can get into the next stage, that will be the important thing. It will be the next stage that then has to deal with the fact some students are really only there due to inflated grades and not up to A Levels or that degree or whatever.

For so many reasons this year's cohort of 11s and 13s will not be treated fairly. My immediate concerns are:

• I suspect many private schools will inflate grades and/or succumb to parental pressure to inflate grades.
• Even if they do not deliberately inflate grades they are likely to know individual students better than the teachers do at very large state secondaries - I strongly suspect those middle of the road/quiet kids in large state secondaries that might have done well by and on exam day will not do well with teacher grades.
• State schools have no incentive to "play the system" whereas private ones certainly do.

I don't doubt the vast majority of teachers' professional integrity, but they're also human and subject to the same unconscious biases as the rest of us.

Last year's weren't.

My DS's school self-moderated - i.e. when the plan was still for the exam boards to moderate the teacher's grades, they thought they'd be really clever and self-moderate, which mostly meant the teacher's grades were lowered for many students (e.g. at grade boundaries or based on previously years trends etc).

So the students at this school are at a huge disadvantage compared to the majority of schools where the teacher's marks were allowed to stand without any moderate (by school or the exam board in the end).

btw this probably applied to all schools that used a certain organisation for their predicted grades, can't remember the name, had an F in it (guess what the F stands for in our house)

@coronanoroc DS's school did the same thing. So they've suffered the double whammy of lower grades than other schools and everyone assuming that their year group had over inflated grades.

I strongly suspect that schools who played fair last year, will be strongly tempted to go aspirational this time.

[quote RedskyBynight]**@coronanoroc* DS's school did the same thing. So they've suffered the double whammy of lower grades than other schools and* everyone assuming that their year group had over inflated grades.

I strongly suspect that schools who played fair last year, will be strongly tempted to go aspirational this time.[/quote]
Yes! I think that everyone whose grades were moderated via that particular trust/organisation (three letters, at least one F) should be provided with a certificate to show that their grades were moderated!

Everyone assumes DS's are high because of the grade inflation but in fact several of the grades were lowered by the self-moderation.

Definitely the schools will not be doing that this year.

I’m hoping as a year 13 parent least they can sort of map from the GCSE results that they took.
I’m worried as my child did far far better in her GCSE than the school teachers thought - to be honest even we where surprised! She is a very quiet student and never the loudest in a class. For her GCSE one teacher couldn’t even remember her name and it’s only when she got an 8 in that subject that the teacher actually remembered it.

I’m hoping and I do believe the teachers are best placed for this and will be fair - but it is a worry as a mother of a very nervous student.

It’s not true that state schools have no incentive to play the system and be overly generous. All schools like to be able
to present fantastic i results and show themselves in a good light.

Many independent schools will have better results than many state schools (clearly lots of state schools beat independent schools too) but that is the case every year when they are are graded by exams too. It is a fact that students in independent schools have access to more resources, smaller classes etc.

In the end, the grades teachers award this year have to be based on evidence of performance. They aren’t to be based on potential or to reflect the fact that some children had a more disturbed education over Covid than others. Teacher grades aren’t being given to level the playing field. The reality is that some students have had a fantastic online learning experience and have made great progress and will be given higher grades. Others have had a truly crap time due to home situation or school situation or whatever...no level playing field.....but the grades will be given based on the work they’ve done, like the grades would have been based in exam performance, with no special treatment to those with difficult backgrounds etc. There will be scope to plead special consideration as usual, but it won’t be that someone has had a worse Covid experience than someone else.

Given students in affluent areas have often accessed better education and more education than those in deprived areas, the results this summer should show a widening gap of attainment between the haves and have-nots....because that has been the experience of Covid and experience of education. But I feel pretty sure the figures when they come out won’t show that, because it’s. It the story the government will want to project, so instead, when they do whatever ‘moderation’ they want to do to the teacher grades submitted, I’d think that particularly deprived schools will be treated a bit more leniently, although that shouldn’t happen, because these grades are meant to reflect performance (now across the course not just in an exam) and not be adjusted to reflect the more difficult circumstances some students have faced.

@coronanoroc

btw this probably applied to all schools that used a certain organisation for their predicted grades, can't remember the name, had an F in it (guess what the F stands for in our house)

FFT aka Fischer Family Trust? Used by some schools to help estimate Yr 11 and 13 target grades.

I though all schools used FFT targets (no idea why I thought that)!

[quote RedskyBynight]**@coronanoroc* DS's school did the same thing. So they've suffered the double whammy of lower grades than other schools and* everyone assuming that their year group had over inflated grades.

I strongly suspect that schools who played fair last year, will be strongly tempted to go aspirational this time.[/quote]
Totally.

But those who didn't play fair last year will probably predict that and go even higher to try and beat the other schools.

Anyone who thinks that didn't happen is naïve at best.