The Sixteenth Republic - waiting on the GCSE results show!

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Reading how the algorithm worked I was like ‘ok, ok, uhuh, right, I get that’ then I got to the bit where the kids had all been assigned their grades, adjusted for previous years’ value added and adjusted for their cohort’s attainment depending on how many kids they knew the prior attainment of. So the kids all had grades.

Then it went ‘and those grades are converted into marks according to rank, and those marks are then fed into the national picture from which we create grade boundaries as we would do in previous years so that the right proportion of kids get each grade and then changed the marks back again into different grades’.

It’s like the train that was chugging along quite nicely and just needed to finish with a ‘we then conducted a common sense manual check for any obvious anomalies against the CAGs assessed by each centre, including maths against further maths results’ and instead the train set on fire, tumbled off the track and headed off in the direction of a tinder-dry forest.

Noble I've just spoken to a bloke who works for the DfE. Apparently they got the data and checked the national level and it looked fine. Checked the regional level and started asking questions. By then it was too late and A Levels were released to schools.

Even he said, checking schools individually for over inflation would have been better.

A lot got hidden by the national picture looking OK. One of those situations where having country level data wasn't enough. It needed analysis lower down at school level.

Seen the foundation kid CAG 1, algorithm awarded an 8

Just voted-my goodness, can’t believe the number of yes!

I’m assuming they’re not all answering the actual question, more “Should schools go back full-time?”

@Hercwasonaroll

Seen the foundation kid CAG 1, algorithm awarded an 8

Welcome to A-level maths!

Seriously, what?!

The right wing rag readers are voting in favour of the government.

Just saw it on twitter! School appealing for a 1 🤯

@Hercwasonaroll

Seen the foundation kid CAG 1, algorithm awarded an 8

What?!!

herc NO WAY!!!!

That's so impossible and yet so likely this year!

But how did that actually happen?

So now schools have been told NOT to give out BTec results tomorrow....

Herc - can you link to the Twitter? I cannot conceive how that could happen!

Interesting. Our btec results were markedly higher than cags.

For those who need to know BTEC are being regraded. I agree with Jack!

twitter.com/MrJonnyMitchell/status/1296132011090993164?s=19

twitter.com/teachbtec/status/1296130414545862656?s=21

Link

I am going to go with ‘data entry error’ for that one as the most reasonable explanation.

When there is that volume of data being processed, errors are inevitable.

I bloody hope so noble. Makes an absolute mockery if not.

I worry about all the manic data entry and re entry and re re entry now producing lots of admin errors which schools won't be able to spot because they haven't been sent the full algorithm grades.

@Flagsfiend

How many teachers keep mock papers? I certainly don't - gave them back to the students and did feedback so that they could make progress.

I give papers back with lots of feedback EBI stuff scribbled everywhere. I keep a copy of the highest and lowest grade and that's it.

The foundation kid awarded an A will probably end up doing A Level Maths at college because 'I got the grade innit' as they used to say at my old school.

Hmmm

*The warning comes as teachers and parents raise their own concerns about lack of consistency in distancing guidance for pupils in and out of schools, which returned full-time last week.
Following evidence that recent clusters in Glasgow and Lanarkshire were linked via a social gathering in a house where social distancing was not observed, Scotland’s national clinical director Jason Leitch warned on Monday that “unregulated” house parties were a “real concern”.
Sturgeon also went on to warn young people about the need to maintain social distancing whilst outside school, despite this no longer being required in the classroom.
Adamson said it was important to give “clear and consistent messaging”, noting confusion around wearing of face masks and physical distancing on public transport, shops and classrooms.

We have to be careful this doesn’t become accusatory and be aware of the impact on young people. Young people have said they feel the focus on house parties is unfair when it is often adults who are meeting up in that way.
Asked about these comments at her daily briefing, Sturgeon said:

I do fundamentally disagree with the idea that we are trying to scapegoat anybody. This is an infectious virus, it’s nobody’s fault.
But I’ve also got a responsibility to the nation to point out what we understand from the evidence are the higher risk areas for transmission. And we know that one of those is indoor social gatherings. Young people do like gathering together, it’s not blaming them for that to point out it is a risk.
Sturgeon said the “impact on young people has been immense and we need to try for their sakes to get as much normality as possible”. That, she said, is why she is so determined to keep schools open even if it means sacrifices from other parts of the community.

But I don’t do them any favours if I don’t point out where they are at greatest risk and try to minimise that, and explain the differences [for example in distancing at home and school*

Come on, Nicola, you don't really believe this works, do you??

Your CAG appeal Facebook group has made the TES, piggy

www.tes.com/news/gcses-A-levels-2020-please-dont-allow-cag-appeals-say-schools

@Piggywaspushed

I just bit on a FB thread of another campaign group who are nearly as annoying as U4T, who are campaigning to give students not just their CAGs but their UCAS grades!

Apparently, they have been misled.

OMG - if I was a uni admissions officer I would be rocking gently in a corner.

Every year we get kids who we know will get a B on a good day and if the planets were aligned the right way, at best they are C grades kids. But SLT forced us into an ABB prediction so that they have a chance to make their aspirational university and not just their 'safe' option.

The drop rate is bound to increase - some students should be Leeds Beckett not Leeds for example but parents will never listen to that.