Ofqual - you can’t appeal CAGS or use mocks

[noblegiraffe]

Updated info just out from Ofqual because there has been obvious confusion after last weekend.

Students will not be able to appeal on the basis that they think their CAG was unfair, and they will not be able to appeal on the basis of a higher mock grade.

Appeals will be allowed from schools only for admin errors, such as data entry errors.

If there are concerns about bias or discrimination, they should be raised with the school in the first instance.

The autumn exam series will be available for anyone unhappy with their result.

schoolsweek.co.uk/results-2020-what-you-need-to-know-about-this-years-appeals-and-autumn-resits/

^LyraLilly

Thanks for this @noblegiraffe although it's not welcome news for us.

DD is largely happy with her results apart from one.. she got an 8 in her mock, 6's and 7's in class work and previous tests and has been awarded a 5 hmm. I've asked the school for an explanation but no response as yet. Her school is useless tbh and were found to be Inadequate across the board by OFSTED just before Christmas. I doubt they'll admit to any admin error ( if that's the case) so it looks like she's stuck.

In the grand scheme of things it won't matter as she's been accepted for an a level in the subject but it's her favourite and best subject and she's gutted^

We're in the same position. The subject in question is an option subject. DD has been a constant grade 6 work, all along her teacher said she's likely to get a 7 in her exams. Whenever they did tests or assessments she scored top 2nd or 3rd of the class. There are only 22 in her class, and only 2 girls. Slightly less kids overall in the other class, again only 2 girls, around 40 in total. Very boy heavy.

I would hope there hasn't been any gender bias but it does feel very odd to me. I also don't want to go throwing that around as I still have another child that has 3 more years there.

I have queried the grade but very breezy about it. However I have a strong feeling they will just gloss over it and say that's what she's working at.

I suppose another reason could be that previous data shows a generally low attainment and they've match the current cohort to that so if a child was likely to get an 8 or more (DD said there are definitely kids that were working at that level) then maybe they've also been moved down so to keep the data looking like a normal exam year. That would explain a kid that is working at a high 6 ends up with a 5 I assume.

DD was shocked by it, but equally it hasn't stopped her continuity this subject at A level, the course requirements was 4 and she currently isn't bothered enough to want to sit the exam in November.

So, we are now in the situation where ds has low A level grades and having read the appeal guidelines, we have no right of appeal either.

@Lightuptheroom unexpectedly low? Below mock grades?

Yes, below mock grades, the government u turn has removed the right of appeal on the basis of mock grades as it overrides the previous 'triple lock' ptomise

That's frustrating for you. Have the school said anything? The only students we put below mock grades were those who had stopped working.

They have cited 'lack of evidence'" looking at it they have placed more weight on homework and classwork than they did on coursework and mocks. My son had mitigating circumstances before lockdown occurred which meant he was behind with classwork and homework, we were working to resolve this. At the point of lockdown he was told to concentrate solely on coursework (which was submitted on time as the due dates fell after the Easter holidays) We then had complete silence from the school. On results day he was given grades way lower than the predicted grades or the mock grades, at that point we assumed it was down to the algorithm and put in an immediate appeal under the 'triple lock' school were very supportive and happy to also contact his firm choice as the appeal would have made the grades high enough to be seriously considered (not making the original offer but still high enough for what they wanted in clearing etc)
After days of pushing for the CAG, I received a call to tell me they were actually the same as those given out last week, they didn't know if the mock appeal would still stand and they cited 'lack of evidence' due to the mitigating circumstances we supposedly had all been working together to solve! There was also mention of a school report which apparently outlined some issues but this was never sent out and I wasn't told what it contained (bearing in mind I was talking to the school pastoral lead virtually every day at that point ) They offered to appeal to the firm choice and my ds wrote as well. At this point we have no further information on whether that appeal has been successful or not. I can't go into more detail on an open forum. Ultimately, If the firm still refuse then he will go to his insurance, which he secured under his own merit by way of an external A level standard scholarship exam, for which he scored very high marks. I'm furious that the school have turned the mitigating circumstances against him while all the noises they made at the time were that they were working so hard to support him.

I don’t think they were allowed to use coursework completed during lockdown to override evidence of grades before lockdown as they were supposed to be mindful of the fact that it could have been done with support.

@CurlyhairedAssassin totally agree I have one of those DS who needed the mock kick up the bum to get him into action sadly the real exams never came and annoying teachers who said on open evening he’s capable of a 7 (surely a prediction) clearly didn’t stick with that prediction and gave him all 5s and 6s. Lesson learnt I guess and it doesn’t impede him getting into sixth form but annoying that I have other friends kids getting all 8s and 9s - which would be really hard to get in real life ! It’s all a joke really as they’ll always be known as the non exam year grades !

@noblegiraffe if that's the case, why was his teacher going over his drafts, offering comments, looking at redrafts etc all up until before the due date when it was submitted??? Had he been told 'we can't accept coursework' then he would have been turning out 'classwork' around the clock instead!

Classwork post lockdown wouldn’t have made a difference either if it was of a significantly higher standard.

The CAG guidance wasn’t released till 3rd April so up till then the teacher may have believed it would count. After that, they should have been aware.

The guidance said

It is important that the judgements are objective, and they should only take account of evidence about student performance. This will include the following, where it is available:
...
performance on any non-exam assessment (NEA), even if this has not been fully completed. You should not ask students to complete their NEA work and you do not need to submit marks for any completed NEA. But you will need to bear in mind that many students achieve a higher grade on their NEA than in their exams, so you should not base your judgment on NEA alone. You should balance it with your judgement about their likely performance in the written paper(s), where appropriate. In case students decide that they want to enter in a subsequent exam series, you should retain any NEA work completed to date.

...
Where additional work has been completed after schools and colleges were closed on 20 March, Heads of Centre should exercise caution where that evidence suggests a change in performance. In many cases this is likely to reflect the circumstances and context in which the work is done.

Thank you

I’m sorry, that really wasn’t what you wanted to hear. There was a lot of confusion around what would and wouldn’t count at the time and some schools were setting extra work and mocks and so on giving the impression it would make a difference. It was all a bit of a mess.

The whole things seems a shambles.

Lots of DD's able friends got lower than their mocks, and then several who did terribly in some mocks went up by 3 grades. It seems my concern over the school having middling grades, little history of failure, or top grades has come to pass in many cases. DD did really well, but a bit disappointed that one grade lower than expected but only by one grade. It just doesn't feel right somehow...all the kids being very quiet about grades with not a lot of celebrating going on.

People also being horrible about grade inflation, which is unfair on the kids.

Someone will challenge the lack of appeals I suspect..

It doesn't feel right because it isn't right. Normally you only have yourself to "blame" if you don't get the results. Having someone else to "blame" for them not being what you expected, makes it feel so much more unfair. If she'd come out with those results from her work in exams she probably would have been happy.

Schools celebrating results this year are idiots.

Over, capable of is not a prediction.

Depending on the context, it may mean this is what I think they'll get but I hate making predictions, but it also means they would be able to get this if they did their classwork / homework / stop talking to their mates all lesson long. I only use it in the latter case at parents evening and I'm always clear that I mean if they do x, y, z but not everyone is as blunt as me.

So I've spoken with DS English tutor. She said all work was sent to the school and he was working at a grade 6-7 and would have got 5-6 in the exams - he has Sen so it was likely that he might have dropped a bit under exam conditions.

I can only think the school didn't take any of his work into consideration. I haven't heard back from them at all, but have just emailed them with the comments from his tutor. We will have to wait and see.

DS is feeling really depressed today.

The second headline however states: But pupils will be able to appeal on the basis of bias or discrimination, says Ofqual

I'm wondering how this would work.
I can't see Ofqual taking "mummy says this teacher was always nasty to my pfb" as a sign to raise the marks.
You'd have to show bias or discrimination, and probably as well evidence the child was working at the higher level.
But I suspect you'd need to go through the school-which would mean that the school has to admit to them or a member of their staff showing this. How likely is that?

The only way I can see that working is if the parents had evidence that all the girls/BAME/specific ethnicity had been placed at the bottom end of the ranking despite working above that. Then the parents could get together perhaps.
But even then I think they would need to go through school.

But using cags and taking away appeals does put an awkward situation that if people do feel unhappy about it there is very little they can do.

Resitting in November for a lot of people is an empty promise. The child maybe hasn't done that subject since March. Then, unless the school provides it, or the parent has money for tutoring-not cheap- the child needs to both have the motivation and the knowledge to work on their own on a syllabus they may have not completed before lockdown.
But on top of that, GCSE students may be beginning A-level courses, doing 3 subjects at a higher level than they have been used to. It's not really feasible to think you'd be able to redo more than a couple unless you take a year out to do it-in which case you are probably better resitting in the summer.

Problem is the Cags have produced as many anomalies as the algorithm, but people have less right of contesting and feel they're being told they have no right to complain.

What they should have looked into was a robust appeal system. One where evidence could be submitted and considered.
But even better they should have done the algorithm. Then looked individually at any person who was 2 grades away from cags. Then asked for evidence for them (or if it's large numbers in a school then a random sample). They had examiners ready, some of whom would have been experienced teachers-why couldn't they have done them.
As far as I know (maybe Noble could confirm) the exam fees were still paid, so they must have had spare money to pay the examiners. I know some people who have been markers for years who would have been delighted to have something (and hence some money) to do.

Then take the small schools: If the cags roughly follow the normal distribution for that school, fine award them. If it's very different then you ask for evidence and decide from there.

It would stop the silly situation where people feel that some schools have been hugely inflated (just spoken to a friend who's dc is at a small private and is celebrating entirely 8s and 9s-I've just checked their website and they typically get around 80% 9-4 (or A*-C) in most subjects. She's not happy because her dc is bright, but now her dc feels their results are just tokens) which devalues the qualification, but also some people feel that they have been harshly treated in the cags and now aren't able to challenge it.

The whole system is a mess, not helped by the government.

To parents disappointed that CAG scores are lower than mock scores, please be aware that different schools (and even different subjects in the same school) take different approaches to mocks.

Some set a past paper and mark them very strictly according to official mark schemes and grade boundaries, so that students get a -fright- realistic view of their progress.

Others set their own papers/mark schemes/grade boundaries.

Some might be deliberately optimistic with grades to boost confidence.

This is why CAGs may very legitimately be lower than mock grades, and why the “triple lock” was such a bad idea.

To parents disappointed that CAG scores are lower than mock scores, please be aware that different schools (and even different subjects in the same school) take different approaches to mocks.

This is true, and why Ofqual weren't too happy with the government announcing it without any consultation and then they had to state what a mock is.

But it is also true of Cags, which is why a lot of people aren't happy with cags.

It's a shame that they chopped and changed so much and did a u turn so late they didn't actually spend time moderating CAGS in establishments where there were clear anomalies.

Cohorts change year on year and in many cases they would have been found ok or it could have been sorted. Teachers were told to have evidence for this reason.

And of course the only marks which weren't CAGs allowed were algorithm upgrades.

So any inflation now can also be attributed to the governments decision to allow upgrades produced by a flawed algorithm they insisted on using.

That point seems to be conveniently ignored!

We know your pain! My daughter throughout the 5 years at secondary school was achieving a grade 6 (apart from a blip in 2018). Her predicted result has always been a 6 and current grade a 6, she got 8 in her mock. Her result was a 4. I have no idea how the school have come to this result.
Apparently the explanation from the head teacher is that predicted results are inspirational but he can’t explain why if the current grade is a 6 and the mock was an 8 that would equal a 4.

Her predicted result has always been a 6 and current grade a 6, she got 8 in her mock. Her result was a 4.

Yes I would defo query this and persist for an answer. What subject?

English Language, which she wanted to take at A level as she’d been consistent and enjoyed the subject. Her feelings for the school and the subject at an all time low! She had already decided to leave the school but interestingly a lot of students who are leaving have grades lower than expected and pupils staying got mock grades or above.
School are adamant a 4 is correct. I’ve made a formal complaint and have asked for a subject access request for all predicted results and “actual” results for this subject. I also requested a meeting with the head teacher who isn’t available until September after the courses start.

Maybe she should have had higher but the school adjusted the results so they fit previous years' results and your dd's result got adjusted down from what the teachers originally gave her.

OP/current serving teachers*
What other predictors are used in assessing potential? Do you still look at key stage 2 SATS, raws scores etc Do you still have CATS and key stage 3 indicators? When submitting estimated grades from mocks etc does SLT still go on about negative and positive residuals?
How much stock is given to pupil premium and progress 8?