And so the 'A-level misery' starts…

[HappySonHappyMum]

So nice of The Mail this morning to start preparing us for the massive grade deflation our DCs can expect next week😡

They are being given an allowance.

Their grades are being pegged to 2019.
According to your argument they are disadvantaged so likely to actually be below 2019 standards. So giving them 2019 grade profiles is an allowance.

What the system doesn't (and can't) allow for is the fact that different children have been under different levels of disadvantage. But actually that's always the case. No one ever allows for school A being without a full time teacher for a term, or school B just being rubbish, or child C was ill for 4 weeks in y12 etc.

The logical argument that follow from not wanting pupils to be disadvantaged because of the teaching and circumstances they are in is the abolition of private schools and probably also academies.

I completely agree. No cohort ever before has sat A levels without having ever sat GCSE’s.

DC who took A levels last year didn't do GCSEs - they didn't even have internal exams in the summer of Y11, the schools shut in March and that was that.

Yes, that was my DS, too!

It was mentioned on another MN thread re GCSEs: "Purely anecdotal from colleagues who are exam marking- they have predicted the boundaries will be lower as they have seen fewer high quality responses across all the papers. Wondering if this is related to going back to the full spec with a cohort which was still impacted by covid..." (link below)
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4864458-gcse-results-the-final-countdown-your-grade-boundary-predictions?reply=128162546&utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

Thank you

@MarchingFrogs , I am thinking about the situation where DC with straight A*s are being rejected not just by Oxbridge, but Durham, LSE, Warwick, St Andrews, Imperial, Edinburgh, etc.

The grade inflation, the lack in spreading the field, just hurts the most able who cannot be distinguish themselves from the pack.

That would surely depend upon whether or not exams actually identify the most able, or those most able to do well in exams.

They do that through their own exams and interviews though before results day and don’t they?

For Oxbridge, yes. For the others, hardly ever. I agree that grade inflation makes the situation very difficult for everyone.

I am thinking about the situation where DC with straight A*s are being rejected not just by Oxbridge, but Durham, LSE, Warwick, St Andrews, Imperial, Edinburgh,

And those institutions are themselves rejected by many straight A* students.

Many of those institutions most strongly identify with class privilege rather than ability.

Scottish Highers pass rate is apparently 77%, halfway between last year (79%) and 2019 (75%). That will put some pressure on Ofqual.

Why?

That has been known about for Scottish qualifications for almost as long as it has been known that English qualifications will revert to 2019 proportions of each grade.

The interesting question is whether Ofqual will go with headline 2019 proportions of each grade, or 2019 proportions for each grade for each subject, which could be a significantly different thing.

Agree that the devil is in the details about subject distributions (which are very skewed between subjects).

Sorry, I didn't realise that the SQA were sticking to a previously-announced policy, I had stupidly assumed they were meant to be doing the same as England. (I don't know why I assumed that, as Wales certainly isn't!)

Unfortunately for England, they have Tories in charge of education, whereas Wales and Scotland don't. Maybe something to bear in mind at the next election as many seem to prefer the devolved approach..

While I'm getting my hard hat on, I must make clear that not all education policy in Wales is good

Or exams!!

I suspect based on nothing more than a hunch that some of the variation between subjects will be less this year and so overall the proportion of top grades will be slightly higher than in 2019.

I would love someone to explain what useful skill in life or any job doing well in exams replicates.

I suppose, in some cases, being good at exams means you have a reasonable memory, able to think of your feet and come up with your own, generated ideas and analysing without having input. Ruling out any issues re learning, I suppose it demonstrates someone who most likely has figured out a good strategy for learning and retaining information, put hours into revision which again are good qualities for an employee. Generally speaking, I've found that those who did get very good degrees etc were also very hard workers. Anecdotal but I've worked with 100s of people and recruited many more!

If anyone can come up with a way of testing students abilities without exams every teacher would love you. Unfortunately, as 2021 proved, letting schools give grades does not work fairly at all.

Ignore the press. They spout rubbish every year.

Exams are ok but I think they should be less of a memory test and more open book and I think coursework should be reintroduced.

If there is a worry about parents helping then it could be done at school in a set time/written up at school in exam conditions with some preparation allowed/note making etc beforehand.

@floribunda18 that didn't go v well in 2021. Some schools did not do it as fairly as others (one went from 50% A stars to 92%). Some teachers had a lot of pressure put on them.

Open book is actually a pain as kids don't learn stuff and finding it can take too long. So those that have revised more do better (much like closed book). We use it in school sometimes and end up with the same results as if no books used.

It will be fine, no one likes exams but unfortunately they'll encounter them throughout life if want to get qualified in anything.

@HappySonHappyMum is it Kingsdale?

If they are a state school, then depending on what OP means by "culled", they may well not actually be allowed to do this- that would concern me far more than grade boundary decisions that teachers knew months ago.