• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News Education

Ofqual’s algorithm resulted in “rampant” inflation in elitist subjects such as Latin and classics

Subjects which are mainly offered by independent schools were inflated because they're not subjected to the standardisation process.

Jack Peat by Jack Peat
2020-08-17 08:33
in Education, News
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

Ofqual’s standardisation marking system resulted in “rampant” inflation of grades for niche subjects such as Latin and classics, a charity has said, while state schools and colleges were unfairly hit by downgraded results.

New research shows A-level grades at sixth form colleges were around 20 per cent more likely to be downgraded than those at independent schools, but there are concerns this could be an underestimation.

England’s exams regulator has come under fire for its marking system, which saw thousands of students receive downgraded results as a result of its algorithm.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson had previously said there would be “no U-turn” on the grading system, claiming this would “severely erode” the value of qualifications and lead to grade inflation – the increase of awarding top grades.

Latin and classics

However, research by social mobility charity UpReach, which is due to be published on Monday, found subjects that are more commonly studied at independent schools, such as Latin and classics, saw 7.7 per cent more students awarded an A* and 10.4 per cent more for A*/A grades compared with last year.

This was due to nearly all schools that taught these subjects being given results that factored in teacher-assessed grades that Ofqual admitted were “over-optimistic”, UpReach found.

“There’s been rampant grade inflation in exams that are more prominent in independent schools because they’re not subjected to the standardisation process, yet Ofqual’s justification for standardisation was to avoid grade inflation,” UpReach chief executive John Craven told the PA news agency.

RelatedPosts

Warning for Brit tourists: Spanish beaches introduce NEW smoking fines

No airport chaos for him! PM flew back from family trip to Cornwall on ministerial jet

Woman allegedly raped by 14-year-old boy – in popular Manchester club

‘Tax all childless adults!’ – UK expert’s unhinged proposals spark backlash

He said Ofqual’s standardisation process is only applied if there are enough exam entries and enough historical data in that subject at that school.

Mr Craven explained: “If you’re in a sixth form or further education college, where there are hundreds of students with, for example, one or more regular-sized cohort for your subject, you’re going to be subjected to standardisation with your teacher-predicted grades ignored.

“But if you’re in a smaller subject cohort, they’ll use the teacher-predicted grades, and may not use the standardisation at all.”

Teacher-assessed grades

The analysis found that for Latin, 97.4 per cent of schools factored in teacher-assessed grades, which was also the case for classical Greek (98.9 per cent) and history of art (81.2 per cent).

Popular subjects such as psychology, sociology and business studies saw little or no grade inflation, because most schools – almost all sixth form colleges – had their teacher-assessed grades completely ignored by the algorithm, UpReach analysis showed.

Figures show more than 70 per cent of schools that offered Latin and history of art A-levels in 2019 were independent schools, while around 30 times more students studied sociology A-level at sixth form and further education colleges than at private schools.

The Government is facing intense pressure to take charge of the growing A-levels “chaos” amid mounting anger among pupils, teachers and MPs.

It comes after Ofqual suddenly withdrew its appeals policy, which took into account mock exam results, hours after it issued the guidance on Saturday.

Mr Craven said the use of a “flawed” algorithm based on historical data has “unfairly destroyed the dreams of thousands of ordinary students”.

He added: “The Government need to urgently do the right thing, giving all students their teacher-awarded grades, rather than favouring private school students.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We have been clear that we want to build as much fairness into the appeals process as possible to help young people in the most difficult cases and have been working with Ofqual to achieve that.

“Ofqual continues to consider how to best deliver the appeals process to give schools and pupils the clarity they need.”

Related: “Invisible” Boris Johnson faces calls to intervene to end A-levels crisis

Tags: headline

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Donald Tusk slams UK government response to Ukrainian refugee crisis

Paris and Frankfurt battle over “Brefugees”

Top ten worst rental properties in London

Fury as Javid likens NHS to defunct Blockbuster in ‘the age of Netflix’

Personal debt more than doubles in past year to over £25k per person

Watch: Partytime again? Crates of prosecco seen arriving at Cabinet Office

Oasis Festival, Marrakech: The Festival that Fyre wanted to be

Yurt Lush, Bristol – Review

Immigration to UK from non-EU countries hits record levels

Three men caused explosion which killed five so they could cash in on insurance scam

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.