Exams cancelled

[noblegiraffe]

Alternative arrangements will be made.

How stressful to announce that with no details about what will happen.

We’ve gone from ‘exams need to be cancelled as they can’t possibly assess kids fairly due to some kids having had a massively disrupted education’ to ‘exams should go ahead as planned and stuff the kids who had to isolate 6 times’?

In one scenario you might benefit some kid who isolated at home when not strictly necessary but who was definitely not in school, and in the other you definitely benefit the kids down south who are more likely to already be advantaged and more likely to have had an uninterrupted education.

We’ve gone from ‘exams need to be cancelled as they can’t possibly assess kids fairly due to some kids having had a massively disrupted education’ to ‘exams should go ahead as planned and stuff the kids who had to isolate 6 times’?

Is that in response to me @noblegiraffe? I’ve never said exams should be cancelled. The opposite. I said a few days ago that overall I think having exams is the fairest option, with the understanding that nothing will be fair.

"1. Evidence of isolation
If a child was told to isolate by the school, as mine was, the school will obviously have evidence of that. But where a child isolated due to coming into contact with someone outside school, the school only had the parent’s word for that. Schools were not allowed to ask to see a pupil’s isolation texts and many isolated without prompting from a text. While most if not all of these isolations would have been legit, there’s an inherent problem with granting mitigating circumstances without factual evidence."

This happened at my DDs college back in November. Scheduled to have back to back mocks in 2 hard subjects, DDs friend went into isolation for 2 weeks and took the other mock when she got back, buying herself 2 more weeks of revision.

Ermm.. if you mean by down South Redbridge and parts of Kent , I am not sure that is strictly true noble! What was it, 14% attendance in the weeks before Christmas?

I think Cornwall might be more fair...

I’m not saying that schools down south weren’t affected at all and that schools up north were all devastated, but even in Kent with the new variant hitting badly before Christmas they possibly had a better run of schooling than they did in say, Birmingham, where the problems started much earlier leading to repeated isolations.

I wish I could find that map!

I’ve never said exams should be cancelled. The opposite. I said a few days ago that overall I think having exams is the fairest option, with the understanding that nothing will be fair.

I don’t want exams cancelled either. But we have to understand why people wanted them cancelled and given that they are cancelled if we want them back, then some acknowledgement needs to be made for those entirely valid concerns.

I think it would be unacceptable to argue that exams should be reinstated and that kids who barely set foot in school from Sept to Dec while others got full time provision should simply suck it up because life isn’t fair, particularly when we look at the demographics involved.

I wanted them cancelled . I get that maths don't. And that's why there is no perfect solution. It's a bloody nightmare tbh.

Is there anything to be said for un-cancelling maths & English Lang, and keeping the rest cancelled?

I think the only way forward, and one I proposed in my Ofqual feedback is.

1. Discard any test results so far in Y11/12/13.
2. Final CAGs to be based on assessments from say after Feb 2021 half term. These will include set homework, class tests and EOY exams.
3. Teachers to use bank of exam board questions to topically assess those topics covered in school, for class tests and EOY exams.
4. Internally moderate all class tests and EOY exams.
5. Submit sample work to exam boards for external quality assurance

With my above approach, it can also minimise the excessive burden to students and teachers

The problem with that remains that there is no standard against which to assess any of that work and give it a grade, portico.

@portico but chances of kids being back in school after half term are quite slim I would have thought?

Hi Noblegiraffe, my idea is no panacea. It is the least worst option. It just allows teachers to assign grades, based on work that students know that they will be assessed on.

Hi treeeemendous

I meant in the event that a combination of vaccine progress and a drop in the R number requires done firm of testing - even if at home (with its possibilities for cheating). But, there is no silver bullet - only a case of trying to find the least iniquitous solution

Schools in the NW were pretty badly affected from Sept-Dec (some areas worse than others) but there was no talk of cancelling the exams until London and the south east were affected in December. Many schools in the south were unaffected until then.

Having said that I still would prefer externally set, unseen exams with modifications to allow each student or school to “opt out” of certain topics which hadn’t been adequately covered and focus on set areas. Eg only answering 50% of questions.

I just can’t see how using past papers, or set questions which schools and teachers will have access to beforehand can be in any way fair to anyone! I’m sure while most teachers are extremely honest, there’s always a chance that having this knowledge in advance could be used to give advantages to certain cohorts or individuals.

@portico

Hi Noblegiraffe, my idea is no panacea. It is the least worst option. It just allows teachers to assign grades, based on work that students know that they will be assessed on.

But there is no way to assign grades based on work completed (for maths, no idea about other subjects). The only way to assign grades is by setting a national exam and looking at how the kids did, then fiddling the grade boundaries to fit the right proportions.

“The only way to assign grades is by setting a national exam and looking at how the kids did, then fiddling the grade boundaries to fit the right proportions.”

I don’t know why they can’t do this for maths at least?
How else can students get a comparable grade across different schools?

I don’t know, watermelon. They’re either going to have to give made-up grade boundaries to external assessments (which will be bobbins), or let teachers make up their own grade boundaries (which will be inconsistent) or reinstate the exams.

@noblegiraffe

I’ve never said exams should be cancelled. The opposite. I said a few days ago that overall I think having exams is the fairest option, with the understanding that nothing will be fair.

I don’t want exams cancelled either. But we have to understand why people wanted them cancelled and given that they are cancelled if we want them back, then some acknowledgement needs to be made for those entirely valid concerns.

I think it would be unacceptable to argue that exams should be reinstated and that kids who barely set foot in school from Sept to Dec while others got full time provision should simply suck it up because life isn’t fair, particularly when we look at the demographics involved.

Of course there were valid concerns for wanting them cancelled. My point earlier with the two sticking points was about how you fairly mitigate. You might be fine with awarding compensatory adjustments re isolation purely on the basis of the schools’ records of who wasn’t in school at certain times, with no proof of whether that child was ordered to isolate by the govt/schools. Others will not be as they’d prefer an approach based on form proof.

*firm

Why not

• exams in Maths & English Lang
• leavers certificate saying studied X, Y and Z.
• schools recommendation as to suitability for next course of study

You might be fine with awarding compensatory adjustments re isolation purely on the basis of the schools’ records of who wasn’t in school at certain times

That is how special consideration is generally awarded. The school makes the application based on their viewing of a doctor’s note or whatever.

@TeenPlusTwenties

Why not

• exams in Maths & English Lang
• leavers certificate saying studied X, Y and Z.
• schools recommendation as to suitability for next course of study

Well yes, Teen, that would remove a lot of this nonsense and that was suggested by Ofqual last year but the DfE said no. The kids have to get grades even if those grades are made up.

Last year though the pupils had finished the syllabus, done mocks with no disruption etc.

So it was not so unreasonable to think they could be given grades.

This year, they have had a minimum of 1.5 terms out of school, and possibly nearly 3 for some pupils.

How would this all tie into university applications though? They are already offering fewer places than past years Several (LSE , Durham and a few others with hugely oversubscribed courses ) haven't sent offers out yet despite normally sending from Dec onwards . It seems that yr 13's will be scrabbling around for fewer places with courses demanding ever higher grades. ( Birmingham have surprisingly lowered theirs but they are alone in this) There are no reductions for lack of face to face teaching, isolating etc. The pressure on teachers to award A and A*'s will be immense otherwise lots of students will be rejected from further learning. At least exams make this seem fairer , although once again it will be state pupils losing out due to lack of proper online teaching during the first lockdown.