GCSE and A-level guidance has been issued

[TheletterZ]

The guidelines for the GCSE and A-levels has now come out.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/877842/Summer_2020_grades_for_GCSE_AS_A_level_EPQ_AEA_in_maths_-_guidance_for_teachers_students_parents.pdf

Main points, schools will come up with the grades using their professional judgement and performance in exams, assessments, in class etc...
They will then rank the students in each grade band.
This will then be subject to statistical analysis by ofqual and might be adjusted.
The results will be published ahead of the usual schedule and certificate will look exactly the same as any other year.

One presumes pandemics won’t be a yearly occurrence.

Re strong cohorts what do you mean? My dd is in a selective school. Does that mean she’s going to be royally screwed on that front too.😩

Wombat :

"So many parents are sure that their child is the clever but lazy one, who somehow did very little though the course but was going to ace it in the exam. Sadly, when the final result comes in, quite a lot of parents and kids will still believe that would have happened and blame the system. "

No. I won't. Ds1 is very bright. But lazy. I still recon he would have done better in the real exams.

But that's his fault. And I've told him so.

Don't think all parents are stupid enough to blame the system.

We aren't. Some of us are very aware of our children's failings.

I think some of you are over reacting a bit. We know our students. There aren't that many (any) who do nothing all year, put no effort in and walk out with 9s across the board.

We know mocks aren't everything. We know the students who will improve from them. We know who had a bad day. There are very very few surprises to teachers on results day every year.

Believe me we’re not hoping for or expecting 9s.😂

but then that links back to when mocks were done

If it were that easy to go up loads of grades between the mocks and the real thing, more kids would do it. Teachers have experience of how mocks are done in their school and how that correlates to final grades. It doesn’t matter if different schools administer mocks in different ways so long as the teachers in that school know how it was done in their school.

There hasn’t been any blanket rule given, teachers are being allowed to use their professional judgement (the issue here being many seem to think we don’t have any).

In general I think it's well-considered and not surprising, though I hope the recommendation for Y10s to not get a grade this year and just take next year makes consideration for the comparatively few teens in alternative provisions who are not in year groups and where there isn't a natural Y11 for them to go into without results.

My son is in the situation, his GCSE and BTEC classes were a mix of Y10 and Y11 age kids at the local college who were all meant to take exams this May-June. It's run as a one year course and we're not sure if this course is going to run again in September. It was touch and go that it would run this year, as it's mainly students who were either home educated or missed out on education either for various reasons like school issues or ill health - he lost half his class when vulnerable students were asked not to go in - so some years they just don't have the numbers to run it. He has a plan in place with the college either way, but I can imagine others in alternative provisions might not have that option and it's worrisome they might fall through the cracks.

Re strong cohorts what do you mean? My dd is in a selective school. Does that mean she’s going to be royally screwed on that front too

No! If it's a selective school it will
Always have had strong cohorts so a pattern of high grades being awarded will be expected with very little moderation needed hopefully (assuming they don't award straight 9s across the board!)

I don’t think it’s the thought of lack of professional judgement but that this is an unknown situation and one is always aware that at the end of the day you are beholden to examiners who don’t know our children and you are under scrutiny. It’s all very well saying we know your kids but you teach loads and really don’t know the whole picture for all. It’s also not a one size fits all as they’re kids. It’s a really shit situation for many. These year groups have all the worries we adults have in this pandemic situation but with this additional worry on top. We also know very little that goes on behind the scenes in secondary schools. We can’t even make a sensible plan for dealing with whatever comes. As the pp said it may well be a last minute scramble to sit exams for some.

So will kids in selective schools be disadvantaged in this process, why is that?

Sorry cross posted.

So will kids in selective schools be disadvantaged in this process

The kids most likely to be disadvantaged in this process are PP and FSM kids and kids from ethnic minorities.

Why ethnic minorities? I can see why PP kids could potentially be but if you’re saying everything will be considered then surely it will work in this area too.

Teacher assessment (like everything involving humans) is subjective and prone to unconscious bias.

But you said teacher professional judgement should be trusted.

Isn’t your pp data scrutinised more thoroughly for progress.?Doesn’t that protect against bias?

When it comes to deciding how to deal with mock data, contrary to people banging on about how the mocks were ages ago and how kids don’t treat them like the real exam (as if parents know that and teachers don’t).

But it would be wrong to say that there are no issues with teacher assessment.

Unfortunately there are no perfect solutions to this problem.

I’m guessing pp kids will also be more likely to be struggling with external and thus MH issues too. I just hope the system properly allows for that.

Isn’t your pp data scrutinised more thoroughly for progress.?Doesn’t that protect against bias?

It is certainly something that teachers should bear in mind when doing their predictions and rankings. It’s unfortunate that the DfE didn’t make explicit reference to this in their guidance and I had hoped that their statistical calculations would have some protective effect but they have stated that they will not change teacher rankings.

@aut0replenish Not many teachers teach swathes of year 11. Even teachers with 2 classes in our school are on about 60. Plenty of time to get to know most of them pretty well.

What do you think is going on behind the scenes?!
No one can make a sensible plan right now. If your child is borderline then encourage them to keep working. Therefore resits will not be such a shock. If you aren't bothered about the result then stop working.

Of course teacher assessment has subconscious bias. Everything with human "choice" does. Exam marking isn't the most accurate thing in the world either unless in Maths or sciences.

What alternative solution do you suggest?

I teach GCSE resits in a FE college. 163 students a week. The course is a condensed 1 year programme so we have a lot less data than schools. It's a real struggle and I've lost so much sleep. I promise to be as fair as I possibly can but it is a very difficult situation. Lots of my students didn't complete all 3 mocks in Feb.

Oh come on parents haven’t got a clue what goes on when assessing, what will be used or how and rightly so.

And re keep studying- what everything and A level subjects on top ? It’s not a small task. We’re now getting nothing from school, we’re literally on our own.As I said the data we have tells us very little. We’ve had nothing other than mock results. We’re not privy to all their assessments, homework grades, other measures and how they’re used, which are given more weighting etc.

A bit of empathy wouldn’t go amiss.

Wonder how on earth appeals will pan out. Will parents be appealing to schools who gave the grade or exam boards?

DS’s friend’s mum teaches them maths. He told DS he saw her predicted grades and he’s got a 9S (secure). That’s what he’s expecting so do hope it’s true. He shouldn’t be really looking. I guess they are marking them grade plus secure, emerging or developing which will help rank

I agree with previous posters that this guidance is a good balance, but am I right in thinking they won't be normalising results for individual students? So, for example, take very bright students who are more than capable of getting a 9 in any one of their subjects ... in reality most of these won't get straight 9's because there is a high chance that they will have at least oe bad day - they might misinterpret a question, accidently miss a question out, or just have a brain-freeze. It's relatively rare to get 9's across the board, so if the exam boards have more students than last year who all have straight-9s, all of which are justified at subject level, will they randomly demote a few 9s to 8s to factor in the "bad day" effect? I assume not!

And of course the same applies to other grades too ... it's just that the straight-9 example is the starkest.

I teach in a PRU and also have limited data, because most of our year 11s have joined us since September. Also our cohorts are small (17 last year, 14 this year) and highly variable, so any moderation based on previous results is going to be iffy.

Anything based on a small sample will be dodgy. Maybe they’ll group PRU data as a check?

will they randomly demote a few 9s to 8s to factor in the "bad day" effect?

No.