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.

Based on what you’ve said it’s clear sets do come into play. What if they haven’t outperformed them? that’s easy to rank, what if they are both exactly the same, this is more the scenario that’s concerning us. Who gets ranked down? Will it not be the person in the lower set?

@noblegiraffe You’re always extremely helpful on these threads. I am mindful of you feeling badgered because no one really knows the exact detail of the formula applied, and if you do know, you can’t say. In the end, we’re all just going to have to wait till August, but it’s help having someone in the know to ask questions or just for clarification.

There isn’t a formula being applied to ranking, it’s teacher assessment. Teachers have been told to use what evidence is available to them in the form of classwork, homework, mock and test data in order to decide these grades and rankings.

It is unlikely that two pupils will be exactly the same on all measures. In that scenario, I can’t imagine a teacher using set to argue a case because teachers know that sets are not especially meaningful.

If it was the case that teachers genuinely couldn’t decide between two pupils in terms of ordering, I’d suggest tossing a coin. It would be as fair as anything else.

@noble Fair enough, minus the coin tossing.

Please trust that the teachers will be doing their best. They'll probably be agonising over the ranking, because it isn't easy, but they will try and be as fair as they can.

In a way, it's hardest with the largest cohorts, because very little may separate 15 kids. They'll be using all the information they have - mocks, progress since then, etc. When it gets to the stage of coin-tossing between pupil A and pupil B, I suspect mocks may be the decider, just because that's the most objective thing, but that doesn't mean that pupil C (who did worse in the mocks but has made masses of progress since) won't stay above them both.

If your child is one that is bumped down (or up) a grade, it's only going to be one grade. Schools' should be able to say with reasonable confidence whether each student is 7, 6/7, 6, 5/6, etc.
Everyone is going to know that this cohort's results may be a little more random than usual. Colleges will probably bear this in mind when admitting people to A-level courses, and might waive particular requirements that they might normally insist on.

Is anyone else worried that schools will rank students according to who needs what grades for university entrance?

I really hope that teachers who are compiling grades and ranking students don't know what uni offers the students are holding?
(Although in reality, they will likely already know which students have Oxbridge offers etc.)

I also hope Ofqual standardise things between boys/girls, in line with previous years. Having seen many boys go through senior schools I would observe that the girls are more likely to work steadily and revise better for mocks etc, and many more boys do more of a minimum, but put in a final push for A levels.

Is anyone else worried that schools will rank students according to who needs what grades for university entrance?

You shouldn’t be, it’s not one of the pieces of evidence in the Ofqual guidance for determining rankings and besides with uni offers, all bets are off right now. Unis have been told to be flexible, they’ll have lost their international students and they will really need bums on seats. Some already converted offers to unconditional.

I also hope Ofqual standardise things between boys/girls

No. Ofqual have said they will not change teachers’ rankings so if they moderated up to give boys a better grade, this would also affect girls.

I am getting increasingly worried the more I read. DS goes to a large state comprehensive with a small 6th form. Results are generally average to good with the odd splashes of brilliance. However last year’s A level results were terrible - the cohort as a whole just weren’t great. This year DS’s cohort were expected to do much better - great GCSE’s behind them, good predicted grades and some fantastic offers from top universities.
My concern is how much weighting the standardisation model will put on last years results. Will his year be denied the chances they have worked so hard for because of pupil performance the year before? Or have I misunderstood?

@dippycat7, ofqual won’t just look at last year’s results, they know that is varies from year to year especially in small schools. That is why they are looking at prior attainment as well.

It will be a combined thing, last year a weak cohort got this distribution, this year the cohort is stronger (based on gcse grades) so the expected distribution is...

Ah - I am getting myself so confused over this!

Dd gets anything between a 4-6 for most of her subjects. Her MLOs are all currently 4/5 but she has had 6s in English and sociology in the past (but not consistently). Mocks were a disaster (she did manage to get a 6 for English lit), but they were very tough e.g. Some of her friends were anticipating 7s in maths and got 4s and 3s.

During parents evening we were told by her science, sociology and English teachers she could get 6/7s - but now she won't have a chance to prove that.

I have no idea what to expect!

Also - if she doesn't get the grades she needs (6s in English and sociology) for her chosen 6th form - can the retakes in autumn/summer be used to address this or are they for people who have actually failed? Would she be able to defer or reapply to 6th forms if she retook and got better grades?

I think University's and Sixth Form colleges will soften their admission criteria because of the crisis. There is no point resitting GCSEs unless you don't get grade 4 passes as GCSEs and A Level's are just a leader to get you to the next educational stage. There is no way that Sixth Form colleges will have the space or the staff to teach Year 12 students GCSE resits and the A levels they are supposed to be starting and the Year 13's that want to stay back and repeat their A levels. I think this is a time for acceptance of the results that are awarded and it's time to focus on the future.

Thanks HappySonHappyMum. Dd's school have said nothing about relaxing the entrance criteria. Maybe there will be a way to appeal. She doesn't want to go to any of the local colleges. I'm so worried for her and so sad that she won't have that final opportunity to prove what she is capable of.

I know 3 Year 13's who have already received unconditional offers as a direct result of the A level cancellations even though these offers were previously conditional. My DS's sixth form college has also said that its entrance criteria will be relaxed this year as a direct result of CV. There is hope - but we need to be patient and let this play out.

Our school has decided to set an exam week in lockdown for all GCSE and A level students and 25% of their teacher assessed grade will be attributed to these "exams". Has anyone else's school taken a similar approach? It seems as if it may conflict with Ofqual guidance. Thoughts?

That sounds like they will be on extremely dodgy ground, especially with those who do not complete the exams.

But can they assess who had google open for a start?

In fact I would email them querying this and asking why they do not already have sufficient data to make the judgements as other schools will.

You cannot set a kid a high stakes exam to be sat at home in uncontrolled conditions.

I’d assume they’re setting it but the part about it being 25% of their assessed grade is utter bollocks (for a start, in many subjects there’s really no such thing as “25% of the grade” if you’re taking into account classwork and so on).

Our school are doing assessments - a full week of exams! Dreadful for the students.

Surely you cannot have 25% of the grades submitted on a test that is so open to cheating, looking up the answers etc its not even worth pointing it out!

Surely, surely a school isnt that stupid? If they are God help the pupils who go there.

I think I'd be reporting them to Ofqual and the Local Education Authority - that's disgraceful and directly contradicts the advice given

I have got to question what is happening here. Ofqual state caution must be used if any school uses assessments that are not under exam conditons. Are these schools private and perhaps they are trying to justify their summer term school fee?

How on earth can you do 'exams'. They have enough info - we are in very unusual circumstances

I'd be telling Ofqual too, then telling the school that you have done so to ensure that their results are scrutinised fully - might put the wind up them.

But boosting one kid’s grade means demoting another kid either via the ranking system or by aligning the results with those of the previous year and KS2 result.

The Ofqual guidance says further work should be ignored if it is of different quality to previous work and that would include work of a higher quality - no grade boosting allowed.

Does anyone know what will happen with BTEC? DD has an unconditional offer but woukd stil like her 3 years. Of work graded

BTEC will be teacher assessed BUT there’s no specific guidance yet on how nor information about what, if any, evidence they will collect from centres. It’s causing a massive headache for me as we had staff absence earlier in the year and although students have been kept completely in track and deadlines adhered to completely, we have gaps in our internal verification which we could usually make up at the end of the course and now won’t be able to...plus I don’t have their earlier folders or even a list of their grades and college is completely closed and locked up! I could, however, make a very accurate teacher assessment (far more so than GCSE or A level, due to the amount of work I’ve already seen and marked) so I’m not worried about that, but I am worried about later being hauled over the coals by the BTEC subject verifiers who are not given to being flexible and understanding.