Different A Level results according to which school one goes to

[BecksPen]

We were happy for her daughter when she received her A*AA on Results Day as it was fairly in line with what she was expecting though all going well she could have received 2 A stars as predicted. That was until we heard that her peers from other schools have come away with unexpected A stars post U turn - 2 or 3. This makes me suspect that some schools really did submit more generous CAGs than others. Does anybody feel that their school has erred on the side of caution on the CAG front. How many people feel frustrated by this over inflation of A level results?

How on earth could you possibly know Well over half of schools inflated CAGs?

Can anyone supply a template for emailing MPs? Would be good to know what others have written.

Yes you are right Piggywaspushed I don't personally know this so shouldn't have cited it.
However many commentators who have waded through the Datalab evidence have come to this or a similar conclusion.
fft.org.uk/datalab/

Schools that have deflated grades should be allowed an appeal or a means of resubmitting CAGs to bring them in line with the inflated results of other schools, this is what we have asked our MP for.

@BecksPen

We were happy for her daughter when she received her A*AA on Results Day as it was fairly in line with what she was expecting though all going well she could have received 2 A stars as predicted. That was until we heard that her peers from other schools have come away with unexpected A stars post U turn - 2 or 3. This makes me suspect that some schools really did submit more generous CAGs than others. Does anybody feel that their school has erred on the side of caution on the CAG front. How many people feel frustrated by this over inflation of A level results?

I expect that some schools did but your daughter got A*AA which are fantastic results so celebrate that rather than being frustrated that othes got higher grades.

deflated is a rather different matter. You have to understand that when we did these CAGs we thought some evidence might be called for if our results looked wrong in any way, so we were pretty careful and cautious about what we did and whether there was sufficient evidence. Every school I know of was very careful. I have yet to hear of one that inflated results. The only inflation I know of is Ofqual themselves who put 1/2 of my GCSE class's grades up!! It is possible that is what happened to the apparently weak student upthread, although I always discount third hand knowledge of a child's ability...

The rank order was the most important thing to get 'right', if such a thing exists.

I would say though exams can be equally arbitrary and -every year- fling out an undeserved A* or 2 and a B grade student getting a D. It is an absolute myth that exam results are accurate and yet this is what Ofqual was measuring its stupid obsessed with grade inflationalgorithm against.

@bettsbattenburg Excellent advice. I think my DC probably did get pretty fair grades so I need to celebrate this instead of being pissed off that others got inflated grades (I've made sure I've shown only joy to my DC so they don't know I'm in any way annoyed about the situation!)

@Universitychallenged It's not easy is it? I know I've had to bite my tongue on occasions when I hear my inner voice repeating the crap my own mother said to me, when I got my degree I had a toddler and a baby and got a 2:1. Her congratulation message was "Why didn't you get a 1st?".

@bettsbattenburg Yeah, you think being a parent of a toddler is hard...then you have teenagers!

Getting a 2:1 is fabulous. Getting a 2:1 when you have small children is nothing short of miraculous! Well done

There was an article about this in schools week. I think it sums up what we’re trying to say:

schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-that-followed-advice-to-deflate-grades-must-now-be-given-appeal-route/

3 times as many A* were awarded at our school this year compared to previous years...