Administrative error check - feeling nervous

[TheLetterZ]

GCSE results. One student feels his grade was too harsh and has put in an administrative check.

We have a department markbook with all major assessments and I have kept all end of unit results. He got his CAG mark in year 10, one lower in year 11 mocks (full paper, exam conditions, mark scheme and boundaries) occasionally did better in topic tests, but not consistently. Was told on his report that he was underperforming and not working at the level he should be.

I know I have my HoDs support, and the support of the school leadership (very nice email sent to parents) and I know we couldn’t have justified entering a higher CAG, though I still believe he could have done better and possibly would. If he resists he will likely score higher but that isn’t what we could use to set the CAGs.

As a new (if not young) teacher I am still feeling nervous, the parents are the sort that could well pursue this further.

As long as you can justify the grade you put in with the evidence you have, you're fine. And there must have been at least one check above you from someone who had access to all of the data in the main mark book - if they thought you were too mean, they could have raised it at that stage.

Also I'm not sure that counts as an admin error. They're actually trying to appeal the CAG which they can't do

Agree with MissHamlet, that’s not an admin error check, they aren’t allowed to appeal the grade.
Admin error is where you said 6, hod said 6, head said 6 but admin dept typed in 5

Yes, they seem to be accusing you of malpractice, not maladministration.

I hope they have had it spelled out just how serious an accusation this is to make. My attitude would be that they have to come up with evidence to prove that the CAG was wrong rather than you immediately start justifying yourself. It's good that the SLT and your HOD are being supportive.

That's not an admin error! He can't appeal that!

I really think there is such a widespread parental and student misunderstanding of predictions.

I predicted 4 students a grade 9 back in January. This was to inspire all of them to see what I believed they could do. I knew full well that no exam board would award that many to one humble school, I just wanted to give them all an equal sense of belief and drive. When CAGs came around, I had to narrow that list and be realistic. It was a bit of Sophie's choice and made me sad. But is doesn't mean I was wrong (or right!)

There are whole parent Facebook campaigners egging on this kind of appeal.

At the moment it has been worded as an admin check, he got X, is that what we put him down for.

So tick, that is all clear.

The next step is malpractice. I’m really hoping it doesn’t go down that route and have all my evidence. Everything was discussed at department level and reviewed twice up the chain.

I suspect nothing more will come of it but it has left me feeling jittery.

I honestly would not feel jittery. The guidance document for students on grounds for appeal is pretty clear that this would not be considered an adequate reason for an appeal to succeed. I wouldn’t worry too much. The school has to take the appeal seriously, to the extent of actually looking into it, but there’s no real chance of success if there’s no consistent evidence of better performance.

DH is constantly on the phone dealing with appeals at the moment. If he sees a school report saying X isn’t working to full potential, if the test results are inconsistent they are telling parents that there is nothing to appeal there.
Parents are desperately seeking any way of getting better grades- not surprisingly- and the people dealing with it have to ensure that there weren’t any errors. The guidelines say that you were best placed to make a judgement, not a parent, headteacher etc. You have the evidence, I’m sure it will be fine.

I feel very sorry for both teachers AND parents/pupils at the moment. It must have been very difficult to give CAGs to pupils who have been inconsistent, as in effect you really had no idea in those cases what they would have achieved. Literally no idea. You don't really know the reason for the inconsistent marks. It could be a case of immaturity or laziness with revision at certain times, or struggling with topics that came up on the mocks but which may not have been as prevalent in the real exam. The student may not have taken the mocks seriously, got a huge shock, and then pulled themselves up by their bootstraps for the real thing . You will never know. So teachers had a thankless, stressful task. How they managed to grade pupils with a lot of school absence I will never know.

What I can't understand is that it soon became clear that some schools were more lenient about inconsistent students than others. And some competitive 6th forms have not taken this into consideration at all, even with their own students. The government was saying for weeks that 6th forms and university should be more flexible this year about entrance requirements precisely because there is no way of knowing what an individual student could have achieved on the day of an exam. I know of a few students who have been turned down by their own 6th form because they missed the points requirement by a single point. And what should have been their place has effectively been taken by someone from a more lenient school whose grades were better than expected. This where you will get parents wanting to appeal the grades, because they are seeing the lack of moderation between schools. I realise there are no official performance tables but parents aren't stupid. Many of them are teachers themselves and work in schools local to them and know when other schools do unexpectedly well.

In the middle of all this mess are anxious parents and pupils, not being given any leeway by 6th forms and not able to challenge a CAG either. Which then means that the only angle to go down if it doesn't fall into the category of maladministration is the malpractice or bias route, which is horrendous for the teachers involved, who didn't ask
to be put into that position. It's an added stress that teachers just don't need. Can they be assured that their school will back them up? What happens if the student's appeal is successful? Will that be a black mark on their professional record? Will they be put on capability? Poor teachers. No-one wins. Except for the government who can now claim "you wanted us to let you use CAGs, and we did let you."

I don't know why the government closed whole schools with immediate effect at the start of lockdown. There should have been a 2 week closure and then Year 11s and 13s ONLY brought back in fully socially distanced, all hygience practices in place etc, to finish their exam courses and sit their exams, with results delayed if necessary. I think it would have been much fairer all round. Exams went ahead in other countries so I'm not quite sure why we decided to just cancel them.

OP, good luck. I really feel for you. And I really feel for the student (if their results meant that they weren't able to go forward with their post-16 plans). Both groups are victims of an incompetent government.

I haven’t heard anything more so I’m assuming it has died down. If he takes the autumn resit he will have my support and help if wanted.

@TheLetterZ I'm glad things have settled down. Hopefully, that's the end of it.

Either way,you have done nothing wrong. The evidence is what it is and says that, realistically, the boy was likely to acheive the grade you submitted. He might have done better or worse in the exam -who knows?

I am hoping beyond all hope that next year, exams happen as planned and no one has to go through this again.