Significant alterations in the exam grading process in England have sparked controversy and emotional turmoil among students and teachers. This year, due to the pandemic, A-Level and B-Tech results were based on teacher assessments known as CAGs (Centre Assessed Grades), creating complications in the grading system. Ofqual, the exam regulator, attempted to adjust these assessments via an algorithm to ensure consistency with previous years, leading to unexpected downgrades, which caused distress and concerns about fairness.

The algorithm particularly impacted students from larger, less intimate public schools more adversely compared to those from private schools with smaller class sizes. Teachers often overestimate student performance due to their lack of detailed knowledge about the exam system, which further complicated the scenario. The issue has underscored the disparities between different institutional types and how these disparities affect students' futures, raising questions about equity and highlighting long-standing issues of social mobility and opportunity.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. moderation [ˌmɒdəˈreɪʃən] - (noun) - The process of making something less intense or severe; standardizing assessment results to avoid extreme variations. - Synonyms: (tempering, alleviation, regulation)

And in their defence, not all teachers are examiners, though, so they won't know the intricacies of how an exam system works. They won't have had moderation directly in the way that exam boards do it.

2. algorithm [ˈælɡəˌrɪðəm] - (noun) - A set of rules or processes followed in problem-solving operations, especially by a computer. - Synonyms: (procedure, formula, calculation)

So Ofqual devised an algorithm to correct for this, to standardise results with previous years

3. pessimistic [ˌpɛsɪˈmɪstɪk] - (adjective) - Having a negative or bleak outlook or disposition. - Synonyms: (cynical, gloomy, negative)

So teachers are too optimistic for a third of candidate predictions, accurate for half, and pessimistic for a 6th.

4. indefensible [ˌɪndɪˈfɛnsəbəl] - (adjective) - Not justifiable by argument; incapable of being defended or excused. - Synonyms: (unjustifiable, inexcusable, untenable)

This is because it would be indefensible to statistically standardise when the number of students is very small.

5. credibility [ˌkrɛdəˈbɪləti] - (noun) - The quality of being trusted and believed in. - Synonyms: (trustworthiness, reliability, integrity)

If they hadn't, it was predicted this year would have been the most generous ever and they and ministers say, would lack credibility.

6. esoteric [ˌiːsəˈtɛrɪk] - (adjective) - Intended for or understood by only a small number of people with specialized knowledge or interest. - Synonyms: (obscure, arcane, abstract)

In other words, students studying in small classes, studying niche esoteric subject areas, were simply more likely to be given to their teacher assessment grades.

7. trajectory [trəˈdʒɛktəri] - (noun) - The path followed by a projectile or an object moving under the influence of given forces. - Synonyms: (path, course, route)

And so our trajectory really should have been very much more positive.

8. appeals process [əˈpiːlz ˈprəʊsɛs] - (noun) - A formal procedure in which a decision is reviewed and reconsidered, particularly in the context of grading or legal matters. - Synonyms: (review procedure, adjudication, reconsideration)

This was always going to be difficult, but it's undoubtedly been made more confusing by Gavin Williamson's last minute inclusion of mocks into the appeals process, a process which, as a result, is still being worked out

9. systematize [ˈsɪstəməˌtaɪz] - (verb) - Arrange or organize something according to a system or rationale. - Synonyms: (organize, arrange, codify)

It was making the assumption then that a school, I mean, it seems an extraordinary to make. The school doesn't change over a five year period.

10. profound [prəˈfaʊnd] - (adjective) - Very great or intense; having deep insight or understanding. - Synonyms: (deep, intense, thorough)

And that really cuts to the bone. And it's nothing short of a disaster for social mobility. Expect more heartbreak next week with GCSE's widely expected to include more profound downgrades.

A-Levels - Anger rises over 'unfair' exam results as grades lower than predicted - BBC Newsnight

A level and b tech results day is never exactly stress free. But this year, things have been of a different order, sets of results for exams which never took place. Joy, yes, but despair too. And despair of a different kind to normal. A sinking feeling that this time the rights and wrongs weren't the student's answers, but the system itself.

First, amidst the anger, we shouldn't forget how well many students did. Overall, a level results in England are higher at grade a and above compared to 2019. But because this year's results are based on teacher assessment, or cags, there's a problem ofqual. The examination's regulator says that teachers are too optimistic for a third of candidate predictions, accurate for half, and pessimistic for a 6th.

So Ofqual devised an algorithm to correct for this, to standardise results with previous years. If they hadn't, it was predicted this year would have been the most generous ever and they and ministers say, would lack credibility. But the problem is that it's led to some substantial and unexpected downgrades over the past three years.

We've entered 30 students. Three years ago, one of those students got a U grade because of that U grade. Three years ago, the the algorithm has made the decision that one of our students this year has to have a U grade. There was nobody in that class that was anywhere near a U grade, so they've downgraded somebody from a d grade to a U grade.

So I get what's happening in terms of trying to keep things standardized. But at the chalk face at the interface between the algorithm, in a real person's life, it's impossible to try and explain that to a student and to try and justify that to a student. Though poorer pupils have done better in aggregate, private schools have done even, even better than usual.

Why? The answer is on page 126 of the Ofqual report. More reliance has to be placed on cags when awarding grades for centers with small cohorts. This is because it would be indefensible to statistically standardise when the number of students is very small. In other words, students studying in small classes, studying niche esoteric subject areas, were simply more likely to be given to their teacher assessment grades because there just isn't enough data to standardise to compare them from year to year.

And what sort of schools tend to have smaller classes with niche esoteric subject areas? Well, that will be private schools. Obviously one thing led to another. Methusan Thiagarajara is one of those who, had he gone to private school, may be in a very different place right now. He had an offer to read medicine at Cambridge, was predicted. Four stars was downgraded. The offer has been withdrawn.

No one's ever gone Cambridge in my school, and, yeah, my school was hopeful that I would be the first one to go there. And, you know, that's like, I wanted to make them proud. That's why I kept working hard and I wanted to make everyone that believed in me proud, my parents, my school and most importantly, myself. Right. Like, I believed in myself. I knew I could get those grades if I actually did the exams.

This was always going to be difficult, but it's undoubtedly been made more confusing by Gavin Williamson's last minute inclusion of mocks into the appeals process, a process which, as a result, is still being worked out. Either way, the current situation risks making things worse long term for the poorest.

The difficult thing for people to see, both last week and this week, is seeing talented young people, you know, really promising young people, who are being kind of artificially held back because of the school that they attend. And that really cuts to the bone. And it's nothing short of a disaster for social mobility.

Expect more heartbreak next week with GCSE's widely expected to include more profound downgrades. Still, in the meantime, will a conservative government stick to a regime which sits uncomfortably with its philosophy, which prioritizes the system over the individual?

Now, that's an essay question worth pondering. Louis Gouda. Well, now I'm joined by John Jones, head teacher of Barnhill Community High, and Kate Green, Labour shadow education secretary. We did invite the government to come onto the program to respond to the thousands of students whose futures have been thrown up in the air, and to explain how the marking down of almost 40% of a level result sits with their promise to level up.

But nobody wanted to appear. But, however, we do have John Jones with us. Thank you very much for joining us. I mean, you heard the last comment there. Talented young people are being held back now, and I wonder what's happened in your school.

Well, it's been a tremendously difficult day in schools across the country, I'm sure, and ours was certainly a good example of that. What we have seen in the positive aspects is just genuinely relief from students who've got their places at university and can move on, not the usual jubilation that we're so used to on results days.

And in the more challenging areas, we've seen students denied access to their university places because of the algorithm that's generated their grades. And yes, it's through no fault of their own. This algorithm yet again. Tell me, I mean, mental stress for students have already gone through a very stressful year.

It's been a tremendously difficult time for them. And the anxiety that students have had to this point is in no way relieved by what, what has been breaking today. But just exactly what's happened at your school in terms of grades. Am I right in saying 55% were expecting a b?

That's right. And it was 28% and 25% was meant to get e and that was down to 10%. Why was it such a big difference?

Well, as many schools, we have seen rapid improvement in a short space of time, but the algorithm includes results from some time ago, from when students would have started courses in 2015 and finished in 2017 and 18. It was making the assumption then that a school, I mean, it seems an extraordinary to make. The school doesn't change over a five year period.

I mean, tell me the difference in your school. Well, we've seen a very, very different set of results in 2019. In fact, we moved from the bottom half of the national tables into the. Well, into the top 10%. And so our trajectory really should have been very much more positive.

But the algorithm hasn't taken that into consideration. And so actually, we've shot up in 2019, but then sort of disappeared down again, thanks to the historic grades.

And realistically, the school is a completely different place now. So presumably every single pupil who has been underserved will appeal. Or do you appeal and what is now going to be the system, or do the individual students appeal to the school? Appeal?

The students can't appeal, but the school can on their behalf. And you'll do it for everybody. That's right.

What I'm looking to do, and I've spoken with ofqual and some boards today and had some encouraging signs that we will be able to appeal en masse. The idea of an encouraging sign, rather than just, yes, you will be able to, yes.

Yeah, well, I think there will be some hoops to jump through, that's for sure. And what about the cost of all this?

Thankfully, a lot of boards have capped it for a mass appeal at 120 pounds, so it shouldn't have too harsh an effect on the school's budget. But we must remember we haven't yet been refunded from a lot of boards from the entry fees that we paid for the summer series, because that is a very, very significant amount of a school's budget.

So wait a minute, explain exactly what you have paid in advance. That's right, yes. We pay for the entries, which happens between February and June and then for all the exams.

For all the exams. Sometimes we pay for resets next year or remarks, but we haven't yet had that money back. I'm hoping by the end of August we'll have more information from the boards and have that refunded.

Now, you know, many different reports say that teachers generally over predict, 75% over predict what pupils might get. Now, to wait for that, as it were, is reasonable, isn't it, when it's such a factor? Every single year, teachers do over predict.

They do. And in their defence, not all teachers are examiners, though, so they won't know the intricacies of how an exam system works. They won't have had moderation directly in the way that exam boards do it. They won't be subject to standardisation. So it's a huge beast, the examination system.

And so to expect teachers to understand all the sort of redistribution of grades and the boundaries and things is quite unreasonable. Do you think it should be like Scotland? You should just have actually only gone on the grades and not the moderations?

I think it would bring its own problems that way. What I'm looking for, the sort of flexibility in the system at the moment by which schools with good cases and students with good cases can appeal, give them the foundation so they can move on in life. Thank you so much.

Now, turning to Kate Green, first of all, what do you think of what's happened today? Well, first of all, I think it's been incredibly distressing and upsetting for many, many students, for their families and for their teachers, and they go into tomorrow still really uncertain about their futures.

I think that's really a horrible way to have treated young people who've already seen so much disruption in their education over the last few months. We've got all sorts of uncertainty over the next few days for these young people. We still don't really know how the appeals process will work.

We're seeing quite uneven outcomes from this moderation process, some of which John just referred to. Private schools or schools with smaller classes seem to be doing quite well, large comprehensives or 6th form colleges less well. And this inability properly to take account where a school has improved significantly, or for that matter, where you've got one or two children in the school who perhaps outperform their class as a whole.

And the system isn't really very sensitive at taking account of that. So it's decision by computer, but I'm afraid it's a very bad set of decisions for an awful lot of children and young people on the basis of all the different things you've just said that are problematic, and it's a set of very bad decisions.

Wouldn't it be better if the government followed Scotland and overturned the moderations, just got the moderations and moved them out the way? Well, I think we've got to keep that and other options on the table. I think we also need to see if we can have a more robust appeals process and an affordable appeals process.

I was interested to hear what John said about that, and it is important. Schools are reimbursed for exam fees, for exams that haven't been taken. I think it's really important that we actually can see the differential impact that the model has had on different kinds of students.

My point is that would a Labour government, then, would a Labour government have done what Scotland has done and removed that element and made it a much cleaner, albeit some pupils would have got better grades, perhaps, than they might have got with moderation. At least it would have been clean and it would surely have been fairer.

Well, there's no perfect system, given the circumstances we're in. I think it is important that we look at all the options and find the best option for this year's students. They've had a very, very tough few months and we do owe it to these young people to give them the very best chance in life and to make sure that they're not disadvantaged.

So what is labor policy as far as this is concerned? Because Keir Starmer was rather vague today, and I wonder what labor is actually saying should happen right now.

Well, right now, I think we want to look very carefully at who's been disadvantaged, how we can make sure they have access to a very clear and fair appeal system, that we look at the data on schools that have done particularly badly compared with what they expected, and understand why that is, and find the best solution for those young people. And that's what we are working on.

So let me just say, would you agree that disadvantaged pupils have been further disadvantaged because you alluded to this very briefly in independent schools, in private schools, if class sizes are below 50, and often they are, and there's a whole range of subjects, as Louis Goodall was saying, that often are offered in private schools but aren't available in comprehensives. If that was removed, I mean, there was no moderation for under 15 classes, should that be removed immediately?

I think that's a real concern and it's clearly got the potential to bake in inequality and unfairness. So I think it's really important the government finds a way to address that.

Now, you said yourself, no system is perfect. And I want to put you what I put to John Jones that teachers, and we've also heard, most recently in July this year from the Commons Education select committee, that teachers are sometimes biased. You know, they're biased particularly against poorer pupils, pupils from different ethnic backgrounds. So teachers aren't perfect themselves at the way they judge their students ability.

Yes, that's certainly a concern, and it's one reason why it's so important that we have a really robust appeal system. And it's very uncomfortable that students don't even know yet all the details of how they could ask their school to access this system. And, in fact, students themselves, as individuals, as John just said, can't access it, unlike the situation in Scotland, where they could have made an individual appeal.

So I think it's really important that the government looks at all the tools in the toolbox to treat these young people fairly, to give them the very best opportunity to show what they've achieved and what potential they have. And one of the concerns certainly must be that there will be outliers, there will be a. Assessments that don't properly reflect that student's achievement and attainment.

And. And we absolutely need to make sure that every possible way of measuring that correctly and fairly is addressed and used.

Education, Politics, Leadership, Grading System, Exams, Social Mobility, Bbc Newsnight