University 2020 :7: Results tombola, roll up, roll up, pick a prize!

[MillicentMartha]

Well, it’s been a crazy few days.

Old thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3962422-University-2020-6-The-one-with-the-results-at-the-end?watched=1&msgid=99082625#99082625

Perhaps I am too optimistic, but perhaps they have realised that this is getting unwieldy and that they are going to scrap appeals, scrap the algorithm and just embrace the CAG

That's what I'm hoping too.
Whatever they're up to they're making themselves look incredibly stupid at the moment.

Telegraph is reporting that teacher grades will be accepted

@MillicentMartha we’re going to need a new thread by morning!
Any suggestions for a thread title? How about something on the lines of @seedybird ‘s "use the CAG's, don't use the CAG's, if you can use the mocks, then use the mocks but not if they're higher than the CAG's"

I believe one of the reasons for the u turn in the Scottish grading was driven by the appeal process:

Complete miscalculation on the numbers that would appeal

Realisation that changing the requirement re evidence for estimation to a v restrictive appeal was open to challenge and did not fit with the way that mocks/prelims work in the real world

The complete mismatch between timing of the appeals and the ability of universities to hold (not) places while appeals were held

Scotland only - no recourse to an autumn exam

Despite the inflation of grades CAG is the fairest way to fix the many wrongs inflicted on individuals. Work needs to be done in how to accommodate more students this year and next, rather than spending money on appeals and prolonging this shit show. Hopefully this will be fixed before gcse results come out.

@areyoubeingserviced I wrote to my MP and raised this very point this afternoon, the government's current stance leads to discrimination against our children.

DS is still distraught and cannot sleep. His friend has just come by and they have gone to an all night burger place fgs. It's a 30 mile round trip and I am terrified they will be involved in an accident and become victims of this debacle in a far more catastrophic way. No sleep for me whilst I await his return.

I’m concerned that some news reports are talking about teachers predictions being used, implying that these are what pupils were awarded, whereas they were mainly ignored. It may just be incompetent journalists but I worry they government is trying to shift the blame

news.sky.com/story/student-anger-grows-over-a-levels-as-exam-regulator-suspends-appeals-policy-12050047

And now this - loan interest rates gone up

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/08/student-loan-repayment-thresholds-to-rise-from-next-april/amp/

The Times are reporting that parents have imitated legal action - that will also help focus government minds

twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1294871845922050049?s=20
This @LimitIsUp?

Andy Burnham said he’d take legal action against Ofqual.

Initiated!

Just in case anyone missed it earlier

Well, u-turn to accept the CAG surely now almost inevitable. Particularly since they won't want to go through it again with GCSEs

@Gymntonic

Using a person's community data (other people's exam performance) to determine how that person is treated is a breach of GDPR. This, along with the inequitable treatment of pupils from certain socio economic areas forms the basis of two legal challenges currently being prepared.

I hadn't thought of that - clearly neither had Ofqual, who are increasingly looking like a bunch of unducated (ha! - the grim irony) morons. Indeed you could not make this complete farce up.

I haven't felt so angry about something for a very long time. My dd - very thankfully - has scraped her 1st choice, but many of her friends are up the Swannee atm. It's hard to celebrate when you see such massive injustice being played out - and fully endorsed by our PM who describes the process as 'good' and 'robust'.

Can I just say, anyone who feels strongly and who hasn't yet emailed their MP and Nick Gibb, please would you consider doing so? Collectively the volume of protest is having an impact

The BBC used very similar wording in its article so I assume both Sky & BBC got the wording from a press release. They are utterly shameless.

“
“Before results were released, the Department for Education announced a "triple-lock", which meant that students' final results could take into account their teacher's predicted grade, their mock exam or the option of sitting the actual exam in the autumn.”

@Decorhate

The BBC used very similar wording in its article so I assume both Sky & BBC got the wording from a press release. They are utterly shameless.

“
“Before results were released, the Department for Education announced a "triple-lock", which meant that students' final results could take into account their teacher's predicted grade, their mock exam or the option of sitting the actual exam in the autumn.”

All the papers - even the Guardian - have used the same phrase. That's made be really quite annoyed. Have none of them actually understood the issue

I think this government knew exactly what the outcome would be. Cummings is a fervent believer in genetics underpinning performance. This isn't a simple oversight and explains why they're resisting pressure to do the right thing and trying to move on the news agenda.

My child has done ok and is heading to where she wants to go. But I now know exactly what it feels like to be treated unjustly by my government, in full public view, and to feel that I have no easy recourse for something so clearly unfair. And then to be gaslighted, to boot. And I don't think I'm alone in feeling that.

I can’t understand the ‘U’s, can anyone explain? I was watching a report this morning, one girl was predicted a C and was awarded a U and another was predicted an A and was awarded a U. How have those jumps been reached? I get if it was a D and a B but a U? I thought Us were when you went into the exam and just wrote your name on the paper...

@LimitIsUp my new Tory MP has replied only to check my postcode. Im not sure he has any influence to exert on this tbh. Hope to be proved wrong

I got a very different response from mine, but then she's been in Parliament for a few years

@OnTheWheelOfLife

I can’t understand the ‘U’s, can anyone explain? I was watching a report this morning, one girl was predicted a C and was awarded a U and another was predicted an A and was awarded a U. How have those jumps been reached? I get if it was a D and a B but a U? I thought Us were when you went into the exam and just wrote your name on the paper...

The grades have been decided by an algorithm and so the teacher predicted grades aren't part of the process. If the algorithm shows that a grade U needs to be awarded then it will be awarded to the lowest ranking student. It doesn't matter if they were predicated an A. If they are at the bottom of the rankings then they are awarded the U if the system says so. It's shocking

I have spotted one possible issue with the previous Ofqual statement around mocks and NEA and that relates to Btec students. They complete coursework as part of their exam but any coursework that hadn't already been officially marked and banked was subjected to moderation along with their exam grades when it was submitted after March. If they allow teacher grades for the NEA of A level students then this would appear to be unfair on Btec students whose coursework was included in the standardisation and marked down. There was a poster the other day who said her son's Btec coursework had been downgraded. There are around 250,000 Btec students so not an insignificant amount. It's a minefield.

@OnTheWheelOfLife the U grade is a product of the algorithm, the full details of which have not been published, that forces some students into the u category in complete disregard of their own personal performance and historical data. It defies understanding at the individual level because she has done nothing personally to warrant that grade. She simply occupies the place in the setting ranking to which the algorithm allocated a U.
Those lower grades also appear to have been unfairly distributed amongst state secondary and especially sixth form colleges and FE using the data of previous cohorts ( see the above GDPR issue) . It is criminally (I hope) unjust.
It remains to be seen if the government can be forced to pay regard to the rights of individuals here or waits it out, forcing protracted, expensive and bureaucratic legal action that will still leave young people's dreams in tatters. If the pressure is maintained they may have to.