Hi gettingthereslowely1 and fraser1234.
An answer in a word, no.
I watched the three hour Education Committee meeting, questioning Ofqual. Ofqual stated quite clearly that schools were not asked to moderate grades and that they should not have. However, they still state in the DfE/Ofqual Appeal literature "A school or college that took into account the distribution of centre assessment grades compared with grades achieved by the centre’s students in previous years will have acted within the guidance. The taking into account of such information is not, therefore, an error."
I think Ofqual is trying to frustrate parents and the process of appeals. Appeals don't need to go through schools. The two types of appeal possible are Administrative Error or Malpractice. Administrative would have to go through the school but Ofqual stated "Given the care with which schools and colleges determined CAGs, we expect that it would be very unusual for them to identify such issues with CAGs."
The Malpractice Appeal can go directly to the Exam Boards (I'll give you a really long follow up with everything the Exam Boards say you can do and how to do it.
Schools have very little incentive to correct grades as DfE has stated they won't be judged on this year's grades, "The Government has announced that it will not publish any school or college level educational performance data based on tests, assessments or exams for 2020."
They also have little incentive to appeal grades as they may open themselves up to investigation from Ofqual. Per Ofqual, ".....the exam board will take into account the nature of the school’s or college’s mistake and how it came about when deciding whether it should take any follow up action against the school or college."
The Education Committee is very much aware of the continued moderation/standardisation that is affecting tens of thousands of students. I'm not giving up and I fully expect there to be more options becoming available in the coming months. Perhaps even the Good Law Project will get involved. We here are involved parents. Lots of kids lost opportunities and their parents aren't able to help them as we are seeking to help our own kids.
Don't forget! You can provide evidence to the Education Committee by 30 Sept. Here is the link:
committees.parliament.uk/work/202/the-impact-of-covid19-on-education-and-childrens-services/
Share this with everyone you know!
Regarding FFT. If your school used it to determine CAG (and a Subject Access Request will answer that question for you. Subject being your child, not the course subject). Look at what pupil data they use to set targets for our children. They use age and gender. Both are protected characteristics and the use of them in setting CAGs is discrimination. Per Ofqual's CAG guidance, "Each centre assessment grade should be a holistic professional judgement, balancing different sources of evidence and data." "Other factors should not affect this judgement, including characteristics protected under equalities legislation such as a student’s sex, race, religion/belief, disability status, gender reassignment or sexual orientation."
Here is a lot of info. I cut and pasted this from each exam board. Funnily (going towards that whole, 'frustrating the process' idea. The links to the exam boards that Ofqual provided on their own appeals page, don't work.
AQA Appeals
What you can’t appeal against
Schools can’t submit appeals on the grounds that they believe a student’s centre assessment grade doesn’t reflect their ability, unless this was because of an administrative error when the centre assessment grade was submitted. Appeals can’t be submitted in cases where the grade was accurately submitted at the time, but the school now wants to change it.
What you can appeal against
Appeals will be allowed where a school believes it has made an error when submitting its information - or if the school believes an exam board made a mistake or didn’t follow the proper process when calculating, assigning or communicating a grade.
Schools can submit an appeal for either an individual student, a group of students, or a full cohort.
- If there was an administrative error when submitting students’ centre assessment grades to us. You’ll need to attach evidence with your application to explain how the error was made, such as:
email exchanges or similar that demonstrate that the intention was to submit a different grade
This appeal ground does not cover disagreements with a teacher’s judgement, or cases where a school now feels that they should have submitted a different centre assessment grade.
If you'd like to appeal on the grounds there was an administrative error when submitting students’ centre assessment grades, please select the following on the webform: B) The awarding body used the wrong data in calculating results’, sub-ground i) The centre provided the awarding body with incorrect data (centre error).
How to submit an initial review
To submit an initial review you’ll need to:
1. download the ‘Appeal Links’ document from the e-Docs section of e-AQA. The document contains a list of all the subjects you’ve got results in, with a link next to each one. If you’re a Tech-level centre, please complete the initial review form found on Gateway.
2. click on the link next to the subject you want to appeal in, which will take you to the appeals webform
3. complete the webform, selecting the relevant appeal ground. Explain why you’re appealing as clearly as possible, providing evidence to support your appeal.
If you’re submitting the initial review request on the grounds of centre administrative error, and we accept your application, we may then send you:
• a pre-populated spreadsheet containing your cohort’s centre assessment grades (CAGs) and rank orders (ROs)
• a new Head of Centre declaration, securely by ShareFile.
You’ll then need to return your corrected CAGs, ROs and a new Head of Centre declaration to us via ShareFile.
Timelines for initial review
We aim to complete your initial review within 42 calendar days – although we’ll do our best to work faster and will be prioritising appeals from A-level candidates.
We’ll be in touch once we’ve completed our initial review.
Bias and discrimination
A student with concerns about bias, discrimination, or any other reason why a school didn’t fairly assign a centre assessment grade or ranking, should usually raise this with their school in the first instance - and follow the school’s normal complaints route.
If a student has evidence of serious malpractice and feels they can’t raise this with their school, it might be appropriate for them to go directly to an exam board.
If your school receives an allegation of bias or discrimination from a student, which they believe has impacted on the centre assessment grade or rank order your school submitted, we recommend taking the following steps to investigate these concerns thoroughly:
• Check the documentation relating to the centre assessment grade process your centre followed and satisfy yourself that a robust process was followed.
• Obtain statements from the teacher(s) involved, containing a rationale for the centre assessment grade and rank order which was given to the student.
If you do find evidence that shows bias or discrimination has impacted on the grades and rank orders your school submitted to us, please send your concerns to our Exams Integrity team at
[email protected]. You don’t need to contact us if you don’t find any evidence of bias or discrimination, though we’d recommend keeping a copy of your findings.
Pearson Edexcel Appeals
Appeal type Overview
Appeal Service 1
Centre error This category of appeal is available for centres where they identify an error in the Centre Assessment Grade (CAG) or Rank Order (RO) data they provided to us (Pearson), for example, where the data they meant to provide was keyed into the CAG system incorrectly for one or more learners.
In these cases, a centre may apply to appeal and will be required to provide supporting information to show how the error occurred. This supporting information is likely to include documents used throughout its decision making process about what CAG/RO to assign to each learner, such as a list of candidates with grades and rank order assigned, evidence of the candidate’s performance in the subject that was considered in the decision making process, etc. The information must clearly show the correct data that the centre intended to submit.
The centre must also explain how an error was not identified prior to the Head of Centre sign-off being submitted, as this confirmed the accuracy of the data provided.
This route of appeal is not intended to offer a route for centres to change the data on the basis that it has now changed its mind about the CAG/RO data. It is suitable only for the correction of errors.
I think my centre was biased / discriminated against me. Can I appeal?
Bias and discrimination cases will not be treated as appeals.
These cases can be taken to centres as complaints and, where there's evidence, brought to the awarding organisation as allegations of malpractice.
Candidates are able to raise a complaint with their centre if they believe their grade has been affected by bias or discrimination.
Centres should consider the information presented and decide consistently and fairly whether it supports the candidate’s complaint.
A candidate who has evidence of bias or discrimination can provide the information to the awarding organisation as alleged malpractice and it will be considered for further investigation.
Our investigations team can be contacted via [email protected]
OCR
Appeals
What can you appeal?
Appeals will be allowed for three main reasons:
• Procedural error – The awarding body has not applied procedures consistently, or procedures have not been followed properly and fairly.
• Wrong data – The awarding body has used the wrong data in calculating results. This includes:
o Centre provided incorrect data (centre error)
3 Select the reason for the appeal
Select the reason for the initial review from the dropdown list:
• Procedural error
• Wrong data – centre error
• Wrong data – OCR introduced error in data set
• Wrong data – incorrect data set or exceptional cases
• Incorrectly communicated result
4 Select the qualification and candidates
Select the qualification details from the dropdowns. If there are no summer 2020 results for your centre for a qualification or unit, it will not appear in the dropdown list. All the candidates with results will appear.
Select the candidates you wish to submit an appeal for. You can select individual candidates or use the ‘select all’ box on each page to select all candidates. If you have any candidates with a place in higher education dependent on the outcome, tick the box and we will do what we can to complete the appeal by the 7 September UCAS deadline.
5 Provide reasons and upload your evidence
Next, provide an explanation of the basis for the appeal. You have a maximum of 2500 characters.
Upload the evidence to support your appeal. You can upload a maximum of three files (files must not be greater than 5MB in size). Note, you can submit your appeal without uploading a file but your appeal will not be accepted if we do not have enough evidence.
Whistleblowing
Cambridge Nationals
Reporting concerns
Sometimes, a member of teaching staff or member of the public has reason to believe that malpractice has or will occur in an examination or assessment. Concerns should normally be raised initially with the examination centre’s senior management. However, if this doesn’t resolve the matter, or they are believed to be involved, it should be reported to the awarding body.
Anonymity
Members of staff who wish to report suspected malpractice at a centre where they work are protected by the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA). More guidance on this is available from the JCQ website. Members of the public are not protected by PIDA, but we will make every effort to protect their identity if that is what they wish, unless we are legally obliged to release it.
What information do we need?
OCR takes all reports of malpractice seriously; however, in order to investigate concerns effectively, we will require information of a reasonably detailed standard. We will accept anonymous reports, although knowing how the information has been obtained and the reporting party’s relationship with the centre may add credibility.
Anyone wishing to report suspected malpractice to OCR should include as much of the following information as possible/is relevant:
• The qualifications and subjects involved
• The centre involved
• The names of staff/candidates involved
• The regulations breached/specific nature of suspected malpractice
• When and where the suspected malpractice occurred
• Whether multiple examination series are affected
• If the issue has been reported to the centre and what the outcome was
• How the issue became apparent.
Documentary evidence can be particularly useful and should be provided where it is available. Reports of suspected malpractice should be sent to [email protected]. Our malpractice team is also happy to provide advice.