Exams cancelled 2

[Orangeblossom1977]

Started a new thread as last one is full.

Don't need grade boundaries to rank - you'd do it on raw scores. English language has fixed mark schemes.

I thought I had read there was no need to so ranking for results this year?

*do

It’s not about ranking students within a grade like we did last year for the algorithm, it’s about ranking students so that we can have some idea of what grade to award them.

That still sounds scary. So if there’s 16 students in an A level class & a teacher ranks them 1 to 16 on work they’ve submitted/tests to date. I’m assuming they go on current data? If, in the last few years there’s usually 25% at each grade (A to C to make my maths easier) the top 4 would get A, and bottom 4 C. Not really dependent on how they all improve or if they’re a brighter cohort or they’ve had a new & fabulous teacher? They’ll be ranked and given grades that broadly match a school’s profile?
If so, these tests aren’t really about evidence, they’re about moving up the ranking (or at least not moving down)?

There’s nothing to say we have to match previous data, although that will be used to flag up schools that need moderation no doubt.

Ranking will be very useful at GCSE when we have over 200 kids. A-level will be a bit more complicated.

But you’re not going to give a kid an A* if they’ve consistently performed below someone you’ve awarded a B.

We have to have evidence for these grades.

Thanks all for responding. A dead battery and a bad memory made it difficult for me to locate my phone and respond.

Noblegiraffe said:
“But you’re not going to give a kid an A* if they’ve consistently performed below someone you’ve awarded a B.”

What about if that kid, in your example, scores much higher in an all forthcoming assessments, despite scoring consistently below that other kid who you’ve awarded that “B”.

Any allowances/compensation made for the extenuating circumstances? The fact that for some students, the majority of their learning has been done remotely? This will certainly be the case for my 18 year old over the two years.
If a student is working at a B for example, that's quite commendable given the huge disruption and lack of face to face. i imagine very many are currently under performing through no fault of their own. If this isn't factored in and compensated for (like last year who were given grades they would have received on a good day), these groups are penalised twice and results won't reflect true ability.

Any allowances/compensation made for the extenuating circumstances? The fact that for some students, the majority of their learning has been done remotely?
In the sense that we're allowed to choose what they're assessed on, yes. So if they did one section of the course entirely remotely, we can decide to weight that accordingly in the working out of the grade.

“But you’re not going to give a kid an A if they’ve consistently performed below someone you’ve awarded a B.”

What about if that kid, in your example, scores much higher in an all forthcoming assessments, despite scoring consistently below that other kid who you’ve awarded that “B”.*

We're not awarding the grades now. So if child A who had been getting Bs all along suddenly improves to an A*, that will be taken into account.

We have to have evidence for these grades but I thought you’d said there isn’t evidence for grades? It’s down to the curve. Like you’ve said even with a Mark scheme you don’t know the grades as they’re usually decided post exams. Are the exam boards going to send Mark schemes that tally with grades?

Are the exam boards going to send Mark schemes that tally with grades?
Unlikely since the mark schemes don't have the right number of levels for grades. We've been told to expect these to be available at the end of March.
We're expecting that we might be asked to submit the range of data we've collected and that we might be asked for samples of work and the assessments we've used. But we don't know.

That sounds antagonistic. It really wasn’t meant to!

:)
Didn't sound antagonistic to me (but then I work with teenagers!!)
The reality is that we just don't know. I've now seen what we're planning and the workload implications make me want to weep.

Thank you. There’s just so much unknown. Too much.

Yep. Every lesson with y11 and 13 they want to know what's happening. We're usually the buoy they hold on to coming up to exams because we know all the things. Parents are for the emotional support and we're the practical... and now I don't know. The last time I didn't know, I was a trainee!!!

workload implications make me want to weep. I don’t know how you teachers keep going. You must be on your knees. The ones at my DDs school are amazingly upbeat - great acting I’m sure. Thank you for taking the time here to explain.

Gin mainly. And bloody mindedness.

And the prospect of 4 weeks travelling in the summer somewhere hot and interesting... oh hang on...

The teachers there are being honest with them in that they don’t know but they’re are adding ‘don't worry’, ‘keep doing the best you can’, and ‘it’ll be ok’. So the buoy role is definitely working. As parents we do the same. Acknowledge it’s crap but it’ll be ok.

Definitely not summer school. Unless it’s somewhere hot and interesting... and no kids other than own.

'Any allowances/compensation made for the extenuating circumstances?'
I feel this is all of them!
A lot in my child's maths class seem borderline 4. If they had been at school as normal surely a lot more of them would pass? If they take working at grades and they are all just below a 4 they will have to resit the exam either another year or November. I just don't feel that's right.

MrsHamlet
‘Gin mainly. And bloody mindedness.’

Gordon’s Dry Gin. Not Bombay Sapphire; bought that - horrid aftertaste

It is all of them! So whack an extra 5% on any score. More for any year 13 who won't even have one full week in college for their second year at all.

@NotDonna

We have to have evidence for these grades but I thought you’d said there isn’t evidence for grades? It’s down to the curve. Like you’ve said even with a Mark scheme you don’t know the grades as they’re usually decided post exams. Are the exam boards going to send Mark schemes that tally with grades?

That's the thing, we have to evidence the grades regardless.

So we will be making stuff up. The exam boards will be having these exact conversations at the moment, because they're the ones supposedly supporting us in doing this. Are they going to send grade boundaries for tests is going to be a big question. How they will come up with those grade boundaries if so will be another one.

They know, as we know, that it's nonsense. But we have to do it anyway.