What are the actual downsides of a bit of grade inflation for a couple of years if teachers decide exam grades?
Seems better to give kids the benefit of the doubt after a torrid year. I don’t have any kids, so not up on the ins and outs of it.

It’s the least worst but it’s not going to be great.

The obvious downside is that the kids who would have got a great grade are not going to stand out like they deserve. The next obvious downside is that teachers up and down the land are going to get handbagged by shouty parents and entitled (but not too bright) kids. And some teachers/schools will cave and some won’t so it’s not going to be universally fair.

Working in a fee paying school I’m not looking forward to the next two months of email bombardment. On the upside I could not have chosen a better year to step away from a management role.

Downsides depends on how valuable you view the qualifications in the first place.

There’ll be kids who just didn’t like school/try hard/whatever but are otherwise bright enough who’ll now get their C in English and Maths and not be ruled out of entry-level office jobs as a result. Great for them, they won’t end up on the wrong career-limiting courses as a result.

Equally, there’ll be kids who really should have failed and applied themselves to something else instead but will now end up on A-levels that’ll get them nowhere rather than doing something vocational. So they’ll years in the wilderness doing jobs they’re not suited to.

I feel it’s the least worst option but harassment of teachers needs to become a capital offence. Some parents will make their lives a nightmare, and there doesn’t seem to be any responsibility on Ofqual this time. Let’s hope there’s no u turn when results are out.

Eldest is in his A level year. He’d figured it out for himself but we and his college have been clear that every bit of work this year might be counted towards his eventual grade if there were no exams, and he’s worked on that basis.

His understanding is that unis are offering fewer offers/wanting higher grades in the expectation of grade inflation. His first choice offer is A*AA, so he’s all on favour of it!

I’m wondering what will happen for the next two years who presumably will be assessed on exams, having had parts of two school years disrupted. Grades will presumably dip as a result.

Don’t forget the students who have worked their backsides off for 2 years and would have got over their target grades by one or two grades, who will now not get the grades they deserve. Just to keep the school averages in line. ( regardless of what ofsted say about not counting this and last years data)

I have every essay my seniors have done photocopied and the marks in a spreadsheet, 3 bits of formal assessment as well. Last year I had somebody tell me that they had given all of their essays to another teacher who felt I was overly harsh so they would like me to increase the grade. Get.tae.F.

Downsides are those students who would have over achieved according to the teacher. I’m one of them. Was predicted a C in Maths and D in Physics and the teachers tried to get me to take the lower papers in both subjects but I refused as I knew I could do better than a C and got an A and B respectively much to the surprise of my teachers. Teachers don’t know their students as well as they think they do and sometimes kids (like me) just saunter on day to day and go under the teachers radar but actually are soaking it all up and deliver on the day.

Its a tough call really. I’m a fan of the kids still doing exams. They need the exam practice and to experience the nerves, but obviously relying on exam results alone right now is not the right solution. Maybe a blend of the two or something. It’s a tough one.

Its not just the teachers, it’s the poor support staff who are onvtge front line. My wife who’s an exams officer has already started getting idiot calls. After the last mess she had to constantly tell people she managed the exams process but had no control over the grading and shouting at her because their lazy kid had only got a B and needed an A to do medicine wasn’t going to make a jot of difference.

I don’t know what the answer this year is, teacher awarded grades are not fair on the teachers and will result in some serious anomalies, that said I don’t think we have any choice, the missed days by kids in the north vs the south would make exams equally unfair.

What are the actual downsides of a bit of grade inflation for a couple of years if teachers decide exam grades?

what makes you think teachers deciding exam grades mean they will be inflated?

what makes you think teachers deciding exam grades mean they will be inflated?

🙂

Don’t know what its like in England but in Scotland we have strict guidelines that need to be followed. Kids won’t be getting inflated results from my classes.

Don’t know what its like in England but in Scotland we have strict guidelines that need to be followed. Kids won’t be getting inflated results from my classes.

Apart from the 14% higher pass rate at Higher and and Advanced Higher last year……

UCAS predicted grades are statistically over estimated by 1.5 grades a candidate.

Despite first impressions we are naturally optimistic people, we can’t help it.

Also normal exam based results have the exam **** up factor built in. The kids that forgets to turn the last page over and do the last questions, reads the question wrong, has a argument with his girlfriend, sleeps through their alarm or pet dog dies. No one is going to get that bad luck and without an algorithm to apportion it to the bottom candidate in a grade boundary rank order it is going to vanish. This is a good thing, poor bastards need at least one break – but results will go up because of it.

Apart from the 14% higher pass rate at Higher and and Advanced Higher last year

Last year wasn’t robust at all for grades though.

Last summer, when I was up helping to transfer my MiL’s possessions into storage my SiL was in tears over the grade results she’d been given for her students. She teaches maths and had a 20 year system that have her a 95%+ accuracy rate in grade predictions. She had a 1 in 5 year A* who’d been massively downgraded because her school didn’t get many. Fortunately that week’s government volte face returned that student’s grade.
Wooblescotty – don’t judge people, you don’t know everything, eh?

A-levels that’ll get them nowhere rather than doing something vocational. So they’ll years in the wilderness doing jobs they’re not suited to.

A bit like every year.

they’ll get weeded out first year of uni. actually no, the uni’s need the money. 2:1s all round!

On the upside I could not have chosen a better year to step away from a management role

Top work, well done!!!

what makes you think teachers deciding exam grades mean they will be inflated?

Inflated is the wrong word but we’re stuck with it now. It’s a different mode of assessment which yields different results. Inflated implies the exams are the true benchmark and this is an inferior method, the reality is that they’re just different methods.

Darren McGarvey raised a good point last year about how few people were getting their knickers in a twist about the grade inflation caused every year by wealth and privilege but suddenly inflation was an issue because it brought the lower ability pupils up.

Life would have been easier had Gove not abolished modular exams and coursework (but not in private schools), they could have provided evidence for moderation.

Life would have been easier had Gove and Cummings not abolished modular exams and coursework (but not in private schools), they could have provided evidence for moderation.

FTFY

It’s been touched on a bit but the pressure on the teachers is huge. MrsG is just about to return after maternity and even though her leave straddled the 2 years most affected by covid (so far) she is in the firing line to get it right. Some might see it as guess work (see Wooblescotty) but the majority will be somewhat accurate.

As Spin said, it is just a different method and the “inflated” values are comparing to another potentially flawed method. You cant win.

Some good points above.

From our family perspective the problem is that some teachers, in particular my son’s German teacher, have a skewed perspective of where he is at, so he’ll end up getting a lower mark in his German assessment than he would have in an exam.

Which of course then puts us either in or alongside this group:

teachers up and down the land are going to get handbagged by shouty parents and entitled (but not too bright) kids.

Which is rubbish for both sides.

We’d much prefer the exams.

knickers in a twist about the grade inflation caused every year by wealth and privilege

Not the same thing at all. Grade inflation due to ‘wealth and privilege’ i.e. progress, is deserved inflation…the kids actually did the work and achieved the grades. A teacher giving an estimated grade based on their own gut feeling about the kid is potentially an undeserved grade wether inflated or deflated. Kids over achieve and under achieve every year and teachers are surprised every year when proper exam results come through.

Not sure its a big issue either way so long as things return to normal pretty quickly.

The whole wealth and privilege thing is nonsense. I was the first from my family to go to uni as a result of my dad doing well for himself despite having no qualifications, so we went to a decent state school. As a consequence my brother and I did well and got to decent uni’s getting decent degrees and as a result have decent jobs and our kids are benefitting in a similar way. Hopefully my kids will outperform me in both their education and their careers and be able to send their kids to even better schools hopefully leading to even better lives for them, and so on and so forth. That’s progress and it is fundamentally a good thing for society and you can pour scorn on that if you like but the challenge is to get those underprilelaged kids on that trajectory so they can benefit in the same way and not denigrate those already on it.

That’s progress and it is fundamentally a good thing for society and you can pour scorn on that if you like but the challenge is to get those underprilelaged kids on that trajectory so they can benefit in the same way and not denigrate those already on it.

I think you’ve misunderstood what he was saying…

What are the actual downsides of a bit of grade inflation for a couple of years

Universities are full of kids who’ve no business being there for a kick off. My partner is teaching English, her numbers have gone from something like 20 students to 60+ already because of last years kerfuffle. That 3 times the teaching load, an increase in lectures that aren’t being attended, essays that aren’t good enough and kids who’re either going to drop out or not hit the marks needed to grade for their degree or have unrealistic expectations of their own capabilities…thrown in that mix the remote teaching, the mental strain on the kids, the cracks are already beginning to show.

I think you’ve misunderstood what he was saying…

Indeed he has, on a number of points!

The whole wealth and privilege thing is nonsense. I was the first from my family to go to uni as a result of my dad doing well for himself despite having no qualifications, so we went to a decent state school. As a consequence my brother and I did well and got to decent uni’s getting decent degrees and as a result have decent jobs and our kids are benefitting in a similar way. Hopefully my kids will outperform me in both their education and their careers and be able to send their kids to even better schools hopefully leading to even better lives for them

That’s evidence for my point, not against it. I’m not denigrating that though as you suggest, wanting a better life for your kids is a good thing, I’m just pointing out that money buys results. How do we get the poorer kids on that trajectory? Well that’s the million dollar question isn’t it?

I don’t have the answer to that but I think it will need to involve getting rid of the notion that people can buy their kids a better education. When the local school is the best option for 99% (as it more often is in Scotland BTW) we’ll have got some way towards it.

‘zackly

It’s a different mode of assessment which yields different results. Inflated implies the exams are the true benchmark and this is an inferior method, the reality is that they’re just different methods.

This is a good point. I mentioned the exam **** up factor above and how not having it this year will naturally increase the overall grades. But why should **** up in 2 hours of our lives play so much of a part in how we do and how we measure the learning of 2 years?

Exam’s biggest benefit to me (said as someone who hates exams personally) is the trust it gives – that people are being grades by a national standard outwith the vested interests of the teacher. If only there was another method of assessment…..like maybe ongoing work in class that you could have moderated by an outside body. You could call it….’coursework’. It would never catch on.

A couple of years ago I worked with an American kid who was over for a year. He was pretty appalled by his classmates attituded to homework etc. Their system relies much more on teacher grading with no terminal assessment and on a anecdotal sample set of one, seemed to have a positive impact on attitude to learning.

A couple of years ago I worked with an American kid who was over for a year. He was pretty appalled by his classmates attituded to homework etc. Their system relies much more on teacher grading with no terminal assessment and on a anecdotal sample set of one, seemed to have a positive impact on attitude to learning.

I had a very similar experience. A really smart lad who just couldn’t get his head around the exam hoops he had to jump through. He also really struggled with the performance on the day element, pointing out that a bad grade in one assessment in the US system could be redeemed by better performance in a later one. I’m not saying the US system is better but it’s certainly worth looking at.

I’ve always had massive issues with some of the stuff the SQA produces but this lad really brought it home because he kept asking why we had to do stuff in a certain way. The only answer I could give was that’s how you need to do it for the exam. I find it soul destroying and I feel a little bit of me dies every year, particularly with the coursework element in my subject which rather than assessing skills or knowledge is an exercise in pure recall.

I’d like to think that the enforced changes of the last 2 years will open up a real debate on this but I have my doubts.

Right then, MCJnr was quite happy with the announcement yesterday, having got A or A* right through his A level assessments in all subjects

Today one of the teachers has suggested that students may be ranked and grades awarded based on grade distribution on previous years,
which I think was a factor in last years assessment.

Is this in any guidelines that have been issued? His concern is mainly around his music A level – out of a class of 11, 3 of them have got places to do music at Oxford, Cambridge and Royal College of Music, subject to predicted A* grades. That’s unlikely to fit in with any grade pattern from previous years, one or two of them could well be stuffed.

That’s unlikely to fit in with any grade pattern from previous years,

Depends which school he’s at

Busted…

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/mar/11/heads-in-england-fear-pushy-parents-will-demand-better-exam-grades

Adam was robbed. This is at least an A- paper. pic.twitter.com/PAMbSlfztU

— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) March 31, 2022