‘What does the dramatic fall in GCSE grades tell us? That private schools were gaming the system’

[Bougiebliss]

Carrying on from the A level grades thread
this article was in the Guardian this afternoon, same in Telegraph but I don’t have a token.
it seems like GCSE inflation was more pronounced even than A levels in private school. Maybe some teachers can explain what happened and the difficulties - i did learn lots on the other thread but still left with a bad taste in my mouth about the whole business.

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/25/gcse-grades-private-schools-inflate-

Shouldn't those schools be being applauded for doing exactly what the government said they should, which is give students the best grades that they could find evidence for?

@jgw1 oh come on!

If schools applied the instructions they received for 2021 (TAGs) to the letter, and didn't try to combine them with the 2020 instructions (CAGs), it's hard to see how any other result was possible. @jgw1 and I have read all those instructions (or accurate summaries). I thought that they were batshit crazy at the time. The DFE wasn't producing rational stuff.

It might be easier to game the system as a standalone school, whether independent or state. The state schools in my area swapped with nearby schools for teacher assessed grades. Some independent schools did too but not that many.
My perception is that independent schools generally did better this year as they got into home schooling quicker (6 months ahead in some cases). Anomalies exist in both sectors on that front of course.
The A levels for this cohort will be evened out unless there are more lockdowns.

Share token please?

The schools listed by @AvocadoMa dont include Westminster, St Paul’s, City of London, Eton, Wycombe Abbey, etc.

My own DD, at a single sex fee paying school, got straight A*s as did over a third of her year group. I have only heard of DC in her year group under predicted, not a single who failed to make their predicted grades. (I don’t have proper stats, just anecdote.).

It seems to me the private schools that really irritate social just warriors and get chips on shoulders haven’t been found guilty. Just tarnished by association with cherry picked schools.

Ironically, DD knows girls at state single sex schools in London who were predicted 3 A*s because it was an internal policy to do so if the DC wanted to apply to Oxbridge. Elite private schools won’t do this. In fact they will underprice in order to spread the field for Oxbridge and to maintain credibility.

That is A stars.

The italics should not be there.

@EmpressoftheMundane many of those top schools refused to publish their grades last year.

The whole thing was a complete mess but I don’t think you can tell from one-year results

@AvocadoMa ours in mixed. Their USP is high grades and it is reasonably selective. They had no real need to game the system in fairness because we always have great results BUT even so I know they didn't try to improve on them.

If what you are saying is correct about schools swapping work, then I am even more firmly of my belief that those schools on the list above correctly followed the instructions as they were written. Clearly schools like those you mentioned did not.

Remember what you needed to achieve an A, was evidence of work that was of an A standard. Each year many students who get a variety of grades will have prroduced some work of an A standard. Last year all of them should have been awarded an A. If a school did not do that, then it is not those on the list, who were not following the rules.

Partly in jest I suggested to a fried who left school with no qualifications that they enter in 2021 when the rules came out (there was still the opportunity to enter). I am sure they could have been taught enough in the time available to produce some evidence of getting an A or an A*...

NOTANUM is describing moderation, which is standard good practice where teacher assessment is used to ensure consistency. School staff across different local schools meet together to ensure everyone is following assessment guidelines in the same way and agreeing fair grades. It is common practice for teacher assessed grades. I teach Year 2 and we regularly moderate between schools for the end of Key Stage One results which are all teacher-assessed. Selected schools are then moderated by the local authority.

There was absolutely nothing in the rules the government issued last year to say that schools should moderate their grades with other schools.

All one had to do is provide evidence of the best grade the student was working at, with very little guidance as to how to judge what that grade was. A school that did more than that, was simply creating work for themselves, and potentially giving their students lower grades than others that stuck to the guidance.

@jgw1 So are you saying that TES ,The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times are all barking up the wrong tree and that they should instead be reporting about some state schools going the extra mile to make sure that their grading was fair by sharing with teachers that didn't know their pupils (or more importantly their parents!!!!!!!)

100%. They should be asking why the government for the last 12 years had been consistently defunding state schools and has introduced a curriculum that is not suited to the 21st century.

There is nothing in the KS1 assessment guidance that says you have to moderate results between schools but schools do it because it is good practice. I would interested to know how much quality assurance exam boards actually did of the teacher assessments. There was a detailed policy which specified that if sampled results were not in line with historic grades then schools needed to provide additional evidence but I would be surprised if they had the capacity to quality assure everything to the required standard as it was a unique situation to 2021 and they probably had limited staffing.

@jgw1 But we aren't talking on this thread about the curriculum are we.

We are discussing SOME fee paying schools being called out for very noticeable grade inflation. I agree there is lots of debate to be held about changes to education in the future, but that is for the middle pages of the newspapers or another thread.
What we are talking about here is 'news' - defined as something that has happened - which is why it is upfront in the papers and the subject of this thread.

@basilmint From posts on MN I thought indie schools were overflowing with staff - who are not overworked because they have small classes, with no behaviour problems, and supportive parents. Surely they too had time to go the extra mile.

What happened last year is that some schools correctly applied the guidance and others did not.
For some reason those schools who followed the guidelines seem to being blamed for doing so, rather than the government who introduced those guidelines, along with so many other things that are damaging to our children's education.

Awarding bodies are private businesses that are designed to make money.
Why would they do something (sampling and downgrading) that would upset their customers (schools) and cost them money?

But what would the incentive have been to go that particular 'extra mile' when it wasn't required?

None of this was the fault of individual schools or teachers, state or private. The guidelines and the system were completely unfit for purpose and all it did was expose the mess! No doubt including a bit of sharp practice here and there. Twas ever thus.if the

You can't set up a quality assurance system on that scale, in such a short time frame, with such vague criteria. You just can't. I knew none of it would work when the key information for schools hadn't been published and we'd already broken up for Easter.

Sorry for random extra words!

You can't correctly apply guidance that isn't fit for purpose. I know...I read it all...I tried. One example: some of the grade descriptors for my subject had stuff in that didn't apply to the subject (looked like a cut and paste error). That's the level of crapness we're talking about.

Awarding bodies are private businesses that are designed to make money.
Why would they do something (sampling and downgrading) that would upset their customers (schools) and cost them money?

Because it was required (in England) by Ofqual and the JCQ, in published documents, following instructions from the Secretary of State for education?

My DH, a secondary school Head of Department says that at his school the exam boards sampled work from only three subject areas - two subjects for GCSE and only one for A-Level (which happened to be his subject). So if this was typical I can imagine the chances of being caught out if you had inflated grades were pretty slim.

@jgw1 I love your blind faith in the intentions of some of these schools.

@Phineyj And yet there is some pretty clear data to be drawn from the 'mess' and myself, lots of other people, and an array of national newspapers seem to think it indicates a certain mindset probably caused by the pressure of being a business with customers.