Will GCSE grades be consistent between schools this year?

[Tonylepony]

The more I read on here and hear from DS’s friends who are at different schools, GCSEs are being approached completely differently depending on the school. This seems ridiculous and has made me wonder if the grades will be completely inconsistent and a dc who does well at one school could do less well at another and vice versa. Some schools seem to be spoon feeding their year 11s information so they know exactly what they will be tested on. How is this fair when other schools are giving absolutely nothing away. As my ds is at a school that seems to be taking a no nonsense approach and not taking a soft approach at all I’m feeling increasingly annoyed. Is it a massive cock up or will dc get fair results?

@Candleabra

There's a list of exam questions that the schools are using, that they've seen before and the kids could also see them before the exam? Have I understood that correctly?

Depends on the school our school aren't using those assessments. The school can choose to use them, or not.

@TeenMinusTests

The adults that matter (parents) will know how hard their children worked. Once they are on the next stage the grades won't really matter longer term.

I personally think it would have been less of a mess to have more option questions in proper formal exams. But given that they had to make the call ahead of time and some areas have had massive disruption, I can see why they didn't.

Nothing's fair in a pandemic.

Unfortunately, other adults in their lives, (employers, professors for example) may very well not.

It seems to me, that once you have got your A levels / BTECs or whatever that GCSEs don't really matter much. I personally don't think it will impact uni admissions as the pandemic will be recent enough for them to know not to set too much store either way on the GCSEs.

Similarly it doesn't take long for GCSE grades to be largely irrelevant on job applications.

At least that's what I'm telling myself as DD is now only entered for 4 and if she passes any we'll be jumping for joy.

@Phineyj

Send a fruit basket, paralysed! We're all maxed out on biscuits. Thanks lockdown.

Thanks @Phineyj, noted!

What has really upset me is that some schools are apparently allowing students to pick and choose which assessments they sit on the back of a provisional grade.

My dc has been in and out of hospital most recently a month ago. She was told she had to sit all the assessments whilst starting new heavy duty meds. Picking and choosing would have really helped. She has done really badly on these assessments which will pull her grades down even further.

As an aside can I ask school to reassure her and attempt to boost her moral or will that be seen as fishing for info?

It’s so crap, we had all this last year with siblings. I’m so over exams.😩

Teen, unfortunately A-levels are being graded in the same way, so not much comfort for Y13!

My school isn't using the exam board assessments precisely because they were put online, so we had to write our own.

Not entirely sure what we are paying the exam boards for, what we normally pay them for is producing and marking exam papers and we're having to do it all ourselves.

I agree that for y13s it is a different matter, and seems to be turning uni entry into something of a lottery.

What has really upset me is that some schools are apparently allowing students to pick and choose which assessments they sit on the back of a provisional grade.

This shouldn't be happening as evidence used is supposed to be consistent for each subject and across the whole cohort (as much as possible). The exceptions are tiered subjects like maths and MFL. JCQ are clear on this, students/schools shouldn't be cherry picking.

It's a clusterfuck. For those who go on to further study it won't make much difference. For those that don't, it could impact on them.

Countrywide the grade distribution should be similar to 2019. Obviously everyone's child is an individual in the system.

Countrywide the grade distribution should be similar to 2019.

I have literally no idea how they are going to achieve this. I don't think Ofqual have either. They are starting to panic...

I personally think the distribution will be like the y1 phonics screening tests (where there is a dip in the score just below the pass score, and a peak at the pass score). I am expecting fewer 3s and more 4s, as the top 3s are given the benefit of the doubt.

Schools with A level criteria of e.g. 6s won't want non capable kids continuing on to then screw up their stats in 2 years' time, so probably won't be tempted to push kids up to meet that borderline.

I have literally no idea how they are going to achieve this. I don't think Ofqual have either. They are starting to panic...

They pretty much told schools it has to be. I expect a slight uplift.

But Herc, they've also told schools that they need to assess pupils at the grade they are currently working at and they have told schools that they should be using grade descriptors to decide this.

The two aren't compatible.

they've also told schools that they need to assess pupils at the grade they are currently working at and they have told schools that they should be using grade descriptors to decide this
I don’t understand this either.

This is true. The grade descriptors for maths are laughable.

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation

This is true. The grade descriptors for maths are laughable.

Can you give an example?

@ChloeDecker is very accurate @TeenMinusTests - the majority of his students are doing the shadow paper though that was released (hes maths so it’s a lot easier to look up) and only teachers can access this on Edexcel Emporium (I’m sure there’s a black market though and I’m also sure other schools use diff exam boards). It’s just the way it is, students did this for mocks when I was at school and they do it now.

DP’s school are using everything up until now. They spent hours ranking every student and they match this against their final test results. This will impact scores but if a child was on a 4 all year but for an 8 in the exams, he wouldn’t get an 8 overall. Which I think is fair, exams do benefit those that are good at them rather than consistent hard work.

Also unfortunately every person DP has helped so far, he has got the paper right. There are three papers and a lot of the schools have already set the first.

Apparently it’s very hard for them to chop and change due to Mark scheme and grade boundaries

No, of course they won't be. How can they be?

Maths GCSE grade descriptors: twitter.com/just_maths/status/1375507484060774400?s=21

Gems like
Grade 4: Interpret and communicate information

Grade 5: Interpret and communicate information effectively

Grade 6: Interpret and communicate information accurately

Grade 7: Not as bad as a grade 6, but not as good as a grade 8

Grade 8: Interpret and communicate complex information accurately

Grade 9: Better than a grade 8

The MH impact of this is a worry.

Oh ...I see what you mean. They may as well have written...

Grade 9 - brilliant
Grade 8 - not as good as a grade 9
Grade 7 - not as good as a grade 8
And so on ..

Can you give an example?

The grade descriptor for Computer Science GCSE for a grade 9 is “like an 8 but better”. The grade descriptor of a grade 8, is just 3 sentences.

They can all be found here www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Summer-2021-Grade-Descriptors-GCSE.pdf

We all have to produce ‘buckets’ of evidence per child. Physical evidence to bass a grade on basically.
This can consist of mock papers, assessments, NEAs or partial NEA’s, homework, topic tests etc.

Exam boards envisage between 3-5 pieces of evidence per child (inc A Level), according to the training webinar I had to attend. These buckets then need to show what evidence is high, medium or low quality (high being sat under exam conditions right in front of you, low being homework or assessment work done at home during remote learning).

These have to be moderated by at least one other person and signed off by two people in a dept. (If a one person dept then by SLT.

Each bucket of evidence has to then be matched to JCQ’s grade descriptors for each child and written.

Grades must not be discussed with pupils as that would be malpractice. The exam boards did say pupils could know scores, however.

This is just a small summary of what is being asked of, from pupils, teachers and school staff such as exams officers. Meanwhile, exam boards and DforE so sweet FA.

That’s ridiculous. Poor teachers

These buckets then need to show what evidence is high, medium or low quality
DS’s friend said they all cheated in their assessments done in the classroom in front of the teachers. It’s a farce when compared to the dc sitting their exams properly with exam conditions, invigilators etc. I honestly can’t get my head around the mess it is.

A simplified version of the grade descriptions (this did make me laugh amongst the shit show we all find our DCs in):

9: Better then an 8
8: Not as good as a 9
7: Neither an 8 nor a 6
6: Could be better
5: Good enough
4: Not bad
3: Not good enough
2: Something
1: Better than nothing
U: Nothing

Ours are doing their assessments in exam conditions with invigilators!