Teachers - do you know your students results?

[mummabear1967]

Hi

Any teachers on here - when predicting grades for your GCSE & a level students, how did you do it? Did you just look at all their mocks, classwork and homework and decide “John deserves an A and Charlotte deserves a D” ?

So when you predicted grades, is that what they’ll actually get, so do you know their results already? Or do you submit your predicted grades to exam boards and then they change them if necessary?

This is really tricky to answer as the announcement yesterday has thrown everything.

I’ll do the best I can.

Teachers used mocks, class tests, class work, knowledge of student to determine a grade.
This was then discussed at department level to ensure consistency and then a ranking in each grade.
There should be no discussion between departments (so history does not know how biology graded/ranked)
This was then scrutinised by the head before being sent of to the exam board.

The exam board then used statistics to make sure (as best as possible) the results were fair across all schools and previous years by taking into account the cohorts prior attainment (not individual results but looking at the whole lot) and previous track record of the school.

The government has now over turned this and it is now calculated grade (no-one seems to know if this is teacher or exam board) OR valid mock grade (again no-one know what is mean by valid) OR resit in November.

So the teacher knows what grade they submitted and nothing else at this time.

Just have to wait and see how it plays out.

We know what we awarded them. in my case it was based on coursework (I teach Art). I have been teaching 22 years, so I used my best judgement and knowledge of each student to estimate what I think they would have achieved, going on past assessments, ability, what they had produced so far etc.
I've no idea if the grades stayed the same when our SLT submitted them, and similarly I have no idea what the students will get on results day.

OP, my dd has one result as some boards have already released the grades. It was a little better than she expected so if the others are anything to go by she'll be happy with the results.
Her friends also reported fair grades. But obviously more to come on the 20th.

@Devlesko

OP, my dd has one result as some boards have already released the grades. It was a little better than she expected so if the others are anything to go by she'll be happy with the results. Her friends also reported fair grades. But obviously more to come on the 20th.

Ah that’s good to hear! Well done to her and good luck for the rest of her results

@HappyKatieA

We know what we awarded them. in my case it was based on coursework (I teach Art). I have been teaching 22 years, so I used my best judgement and knowledge of each student to estimate what I think they would have achieved, going on past assessments, ability, what they had produced so far etc. I've no idea if the grades stayed the same when our SLT submitted them, and similarly I have no idea what the students will get on results day.

I’m just so curious to know - but have you yourself given any students a higher grade than what you think they’d actually deserve because you get on well with them and then have you given any students a Lower grade because you don’t get on well with them?

Of course, I’m not implying you have, I’m just curious to know. That was a concern this year that some teachers may flout the system to give higher to those students they are fond of and to penalise those students that they maybe don’t like so much

I gave them grades which are a true reflection of where they were working. I don’t think any teacher would give a higher grade to a student they liked or a lower to a student they didn’t like so much.

@SpookyNoise

I gave them grades which are a true reflection of where they were working. I don’t think any teacher would give a higher grade to a student they liked or a lower to a student they didn’t like so much.

Yes I wouldn’t like to think so either. It would be so soul destroying to think that.

But say you predicted one of your pupils an A grade, could the exam board not email you and ask you provide them with samples of that students mock and test results to back that up?

OP if you results in the department are not the same as last year you will have those grades downgraded. It wasn't worth a risk, even if a teacher was unprofessional enough to choose favourites.

We are a school that had a boundary change for this year - so a very different cohort - and our kids this year were due to get much higher grades. Sadly they won't as we are judged on previous years

Just out of interest, how do you grade those students who are very bright, but inclined to coast, will quite probably flunk their mocks, terrify their teachers and parents but then pull it out of the bag at the last minute and achieve top grades in the actual exams?

Just recalling one of my siblings who could spell FUDGE with their mock GCSEs and then got 11 A* a few months later with no discernible increase in work ethic.

^*I’m just so curious to know - but have you yourself given any students a higher grade than what you think they’d actually deserve because you get on well with them and then have you given any students a Lower grade because you don’t get on well with them?

Of course, I’m not implying you have, I’m just curious to know. That was a concern this year that some teachers may flout the system to give higher to those students they are fond of and to penalise those students that they maybe don’t like so much*^

No, I would never and have never done this. I have had to make decisions every year about grades, and moderate with colleagues, so the evidence is what's used, personalities are taken out of it with marking.
I'd love to give every student the highest grades, but that's neither realistic or fair. In all honesty, I don't know about other departments or other schools, but I know in our department it's a fair and honest reflection of the students' past and current attainment, bearing in mind anything that may have happened outside or inside school that has caused a particular result to be low.
I know my students very well, I take pride in this.

I’m just so curious to know - but have you yourself given any students a higher grade than what you think they’d actually deserve because you get on well with them and then have you given any students a Lower grade because you don’t get on well with them?

I don’t think any teacher would do that.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow

Just out of interest, how do you grade those students who are very bright, but inclined to coast, will quite probably flunk their mocks, terrify their teachers and parents but then pull it out of the bag at the last minute and achieve top grades in the actual exams?

Just recalling one of my siblings who could spell FUDGE with their mock GCSEs and then got 11 A* a few months later with no discernible increase in work ethic.

We tend to know these students very well, (my son is one!). We would use our professional knowledge and grade up, but in all honesty, this year we might have been hauled over the coals for this. We had to present evidence to SLT and speak about each students strengths and weaknesses against the assessment criteria, but without firm evidence of 'but this is the type of student who pulls it out of the bag in the end' they would probably be marked down. It is these students who I feel most sorry for this year, as they will probably not get what they would have done had it been a normal year. The students who will benefit the most from this year are those who crumble under exam pressure.

The government has now over turned this and it is now calculated grade (no-one seems to know if this is teacher or exam board)

I don’t think anywhere has reported they are now using the teacher assessed grade rather than the exam board issued one, have they?

That would be huge news.

The exam board wouldn't email to ask for evidence for one student, no.

Also the whole cohort of 250 children (in our school ) in the year group had to be ranked from 1-250 for each subject.

Overtherainbow, do you mean 1- however many students took that subject, ie only English, maths and science would be 1-250?

Yes, sorry I teach a subject all student take so we had 258!

It’s very worrying, last year I predicted 4 A level kids a C and they all got As!!! They had never got any thing above a D in 2 years and I thought a C was being generous. It just so happened 3 essay questions asked were topics we had revised together the week before!

Interesting. DD awaiting results next week. She did very well in her mocks and coursework, works hard all the time but struggles with exam pressure so I’m hoping it will favour her. I really think this is the way forward as if kids know their grade will be based on their work the whole time, they’d be more inclined to behave and work for the whole course.

Do you agree @OverTheRainbow88?

if kids know their grade will be based on their work the whole time, they’d be more inclined to behave and work for the whole course

Yes!!! I was saying this to my OH the other day, now lots of kids that usually bum around for 1.5 years then suddenly pull it out the bag for final exams (having distracted their friends for 2 years) may work harder throughout incase this happens again.

@Letseatgrandma

The government has now over turned this and it is now calculated grade (no-one seems to know if this is teacher or exam board)

I don’t think anywhere has reported they are now using the teacher assessed grade rather than the exam board issued one, have they?

That would be huge news.

*I don’t think anywhere has reported they are now using the teacher assessed grade rather than the exam board issued one, have they?

That would be huge news.*

tweeted AQA about this and they gave a very vague answer

Can any teachers answer a question I have please.

This relates to FE so you may not know the answer.

My DS does a Level 3 btec in IT at college. He also gets his results tomorrow. He was due to sit on exam in May and obviously it was cancelled and a predicted grade will be issued.

There were no class tests or mocks. His teacher had asked his class to do part of a past paper and email it to her so she could mark it and use that as predicted grade (this was in May) DS never done this. He said he just kept putting it off. Would a teacher just give a U in this circumstance?

I teach in FE - Functional Skills.
I submitted calculated grades for a number of learners. Some had attempted the exam before; for me to calculate a Pass, they had had to have achieved >= 50% on a previous attempt. I then required them to undertake about 20 hours of learning on an online platform and attempt three practice papers, the last of which they had to sign a declaration that it was all their own work and done within the allocated time.
Anyone who didn’t do all this (and clearly improved) failed.
A couple of new learners did similar, but I carried out a “mock” test to start with and tracked additional learning.
It was very hard work for all of us.

I’m just so curious to know - but have you yourself given any students a higher grade than what you think they’d actually deserve because you get on well with them and then have you given any students a Lower grade because you don’t get on well with them?

Oh my goodness. We have to be able to evidence the grades we arrived at (as accurately as possible under the circumstances). Of course it's not about like/dislike.