A level grade inflation - consequences?

[Skneesrgud]

For the schools that were named this weekend as having considerably inflated A level grades last summer, are there to be any consequences?

OFSTED and ISI presumably won’t address the issue in their inspections.

Will governors or existing / prospective parents even view it as a negative?

Ultimately, did their headteachers take a gamble that paid off? Did they actually do anything wrong?

Understood that most did but my point that it was not stopped and some schools (including the main local private school) DID choose to continue to create evidence to support higher grades.

@Chewbecca ok but it is delusional for those schools to think that this was done fairly when students were at home.

I have worked in a state school during an Ofsted inspection and a private school during an ISI one. The ISI one was more rigorous and the resulting report caused a fair amount of wincing with its accuracy. Whereas the Ofsted inspectors fell hook, line and sinker for the state school's narrative that it was Outstanding (which in my experience it wasn't).

I've recently seen another Outstanding Ofsted for a different state school that was distinctly iffy from the inside.

Sharp practice (and good practice) isn't confined to one sector!

ok but it is delusional for those schools to think that this was done fairly when students were at home.

With respect, we've gone from schools weren't allowed to submit any pupil work beyond 20 March to "was it done fairly?". Or maybe some private school teachers did their utmost to make try process as fair as possible given the constraints of lockdown.

As I said, firstly, all results were mapped to past years' grades (by no means all schools did this) so there wasn't any overall inflation or advantage for the school as a whole. French orals were done by video as were maths exams (each pupil turned on their camera at the beginning of the exam) so no scope for cheating there. I think I mentioned earlier that science exams weren't internet search type answers.

I suppose parents could feasibly have helped but, overall, school would have questioned any results that were out of kilter with the pupil's performance in the last mocks, and over the previous 18 months as a whole. It wasn't in school's interests to swap out a '9' student for a '6' student that amazingly got 95% in their remote chemistry exam because they were working to only X students being awarded 9s etc.

It's the best they could do in the circumstances and I know the teachers worked bloody hard to collate it all. I don't think continuing to assess after the 20th needs to be held against them.

Stepping back from the topic, I'm always a bit surprised that exams boards aren't standardised if the main principle is to ensure fairness.

My friends' kids are doing a GCSE English board which has a high proportion of coursework and pupils are allowed to have teacher comments and iterations before the final submissions.

While I understand the principle that not all children work to their potential in exams, surely there's far more scope for unfairness, grade manipulation and parental help than using a board for a subject based on 100% exams?

My friends' kids are doing a GCSE English board which has a high proportion of coursework and pupils are allowed to have teacher comments and iterations before the final submissions

Is this at a private school?

The Gove reforms removed coursework (or controlled assessment as it was called on its last mutation) from most GCSEs. The English GCSEs which can be taken in state schools are 100% exam, so yes, it's not fair, and definitely confers advantages upon private school students who sit iGCSES with coursework.

Ofqual regulates qualifications; JCQ regulates exam practice. They are regulated BUT …

The iGCSE and Pre-U sit outside this (with a different approach to cw), although they are recognised by UCAS. Some independent schools hold their own GCSEs (Bedales’ English Lit, for example, is mostly cw) and some of those schools have managed to get these recognised by UCAS (in exchange for a lovely long lunch, no doubt).

Just utterly ridiculous. Bedales own 100% cwk GCSE 🙄🙄🙄

🤣 Their argument was that the students were just too clever for normal GCSEs 🤣.

But shame on UCAS for recognising the ‘Bedales Assessed Courses’, and shame on all those principal examiners from boards like AQA who accepted massive fees from the school to wave through the students’ work.

It is curious that nobody (Ofqual again?) has sought to investigate this practice - it has been going on for years in plain sight and goes a fair way to undermining this country’s qualification system, not to mention university admissions.

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Again, it's more complex than that. I don't know anything about Bedales English GCSE, so I've no idea about that in particular. But I do know that schools with a very academically selective intake can some find some exam boards' syllabuses quite limiting. They will often finish the syllabus quite early and do a lot of additional work off topic to keep the students interested. In fact, I've seen state school parents on MN also complain about some of the GCSE English courses being quite limited, with a lack of challenging texts to choose, and books not being read in their entirety. In that context, the desire to develop your own exams is not necessarily driven by a desire to get your students the best grades. It's the frustration of being able to study all sorts of interesting and challenging things in Years 7 to 9, and then having to stick to an exam syllabus that doesn't stretch your students in Years 10 & 11. There's plenty of criticism of the exam boards on this thread - but then a reaction against any innovation to look outside them, as being automatically unfair or self-seeking. Similarly, a disproportionate number of independent schools have moved to IB rather than A levels - not because it gives their students an easier ride (far from it), just because they think it's a better qualification. (As I say, I don't know anything about Bedales.)

I also don't know about Bedales but Sevenoaks School have their own (accredited) GCSE equivalent which I very much doubt are easier than mainstream GCSEs (based on their IB and A-level results).

@Skneesrgud you said shame on all those principal examiners from boards like AQA who accepted massive fees from the school to wave through the students’ work.

What is your evidence for this malicious slur on the integrity of senior examiners?

Well @BadGranny , it’s not really a slur if it is true now, is it? And there’s nothing malicious about it. The use of principal examiners to moderate school assessed courses (alternatives to GCSEs in the independent sector) is part of the supposed rigour of the system. The practice isn’t secretive — all staff are aware.

But, yes, conflict of interest among serving examiners should be of concern to exam boards such as AQA, and they, or the school should declare fees and expenses to JCQ.

What I don’t understand is how UCAS agreed to recognise the qualification.

Anyway, presumably you think this is outrageous and unbelievable practice so please do hold the school / exam board to account if you are in a position to do so.

@Skneesrgud
Examiners, including senior examiners, are not allowed to mark or moderate work from any school they have an interest in. That includes their own school, other schools in a group, and schools where they have a family member doing GCSE or A Level exams. If any examiner were paid to engage in any form of malpractice, they would be subject to instant dismissal by both the exam board and their school, and police may be notified.

If you have evidence that there is any malpractice in a school you know about, you may wish to look here: www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Malpractice_21-22_FINAL.pdf

You may also wish to contact individual exam boards directly.

Conflict of interest is a BIG deal for examination boards, and they take their duty very seriously indeed.

So I repeat, what is your evidence?

Well, if JCQ want to investigate it, they can @BadGranny and report away if you wish!

@Skneesrgud
So actually, you are throwing around wild accusations with no evidence at all. As I said, a malicious slur.

@BadGranny if this upsets you so much, call up Bedales development office (a well-resources operation), and ask them who moderates their BACs for each subject (and ask for all names for the full duration of the BAC, which is about fifteen years).

This is an anonymised forum, so I won’t expect an apology from you, but your suggestion that something that is fully in the public domain is some sort of allegation: ‘a malicious slur’ is an inaccurate use of the term ‘malicious slur’.

This is a thread about where accountability lies for inflated grades when schools grade their own students. It was of some relevance to the discussion that there are schools that have done this for many years. Bedales use practising senior examiners to moderate their BAC qualification. If you think this is wrong, report them!

This thread was about A Level grade inflation. BACs have nothing whatever to do with A Levels or A Level exam boards.

Bedales is extremely unusual in having devised their own GCSE level courses, and their moderation arrangements are not overseen by “principal examiners from boards like AQA”, but by independent bodies depending on subject. Clearly you have some beef about that particular school. By all means go ahead and grind your own axe.

@BadGranny I just don’t think we are going to be friends, are we? But you are actually being unpleasant and personal, so perhaps this is the last time you need to post here?

Just to qualify the relevance of the BAC: a pp asked why students might still be doing cw for GCSE, and weren’t qualifications regulated ?… Some answered to say that there are iGCSEs, IB etc and even schools that set their own GCSE (Bedales, Sevenoaks etc)… there was then some insightful comment about potential for stretch and innovation in selective settings… then you came along!

I’ve never had a troll before, so I already regard you with some degree of affection@BadGranny … but if you work for Bedales then you are a terrible advertisement for them. And they do use senior examiners to moderate their BAC, so there!

Well, about the only thing we can agree on is that I wouldn’t touch Bedales with a barge pole. I have nothing whatever to do with it, or any other school in the area. I know a bit about exam boards, though.

If you think I’m being unpleasant and personal, do please report my posts.