A-level results day: ‘Once again pupils’ and teachers’ achievements are overshadowed by bullshit and political spin’

All students haven’t won prizes, exams and results haven’t been dumbed down and teachers and pupils should be applauded for what they have achieved, writes Tes’ news editor
17th August 2017, 1:41pm

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A-level results day: ‘Once again pupils’ and teachers’ achievements are overshadowed by bullshit and political spin’

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Hundreds of column inches have been used up castigating a supposed “all must have prizes” mentality in our exams system this week.

But the truth is that when it comes to the national media and exam results, our schools really can’t win.

This year’s sin, as far as multiple rent-a-quote columnists are concerned, is that exams regulator Ofqual has intervened to prevent pupils from getting poorer results in the “tougher” new A-levels that made their debut this year.

First point: pupils taking these exams actually did get poorer results. Across the 13 subjects in which new “linear” exams were sat for the first time this summer, the proportions of 18-year-old entries receiving A*, A/A* and A*-E grades all fell.

Second point: as universities minister Jo Johnson confirmed this morning, these new A-levels may be different - with less coursework, and end-of-course exams replacing the old modular A/AS structure - but, unlike the new GCSEs, they were never designed to be tougher than their predecessors.

So why all the fuss? It all comes down to a more-than-a-little-misleading Sunday Times article, which was duly followed up by a large proportion of the media and taken as gospel.

It claimed that “the marks required to secure top grades in the first tougher new A-level examinations have been lowered to avert a dramatic fall in results this summer”.

Like many cleverly couched Sunday newspaper stories, it contained more than a grain of truth. But that did not stop it from giving a largely false impression.

No dumbing down

The process used by Ofqual that the story refers to is nothing new. It has been employed for number of years now - usually to the accompaniment of huge applause from the very same commentators who are now claiming that it amounts to “dumbing down”.

Known as “comparable outcomes”, it is a technical method designed to pin overall exam grades to previous years unless there is evidence that standards have actually changed.

The approach has previously caused schools huge frustration. As there is no accepted means of measuring standards independent from exam results, there is no way that comparable outcomes can allow overall exam grades to rise nationally even if teaching has got better.

That has been absolutely fine as far as the commentariat is concerned - who were effusive in welcoming the end of the era of grade inflation.

But now when exactly the same process is being used - not to dumb down “harder” exams but to ensure that an entire cohort of pupils does not miss out in a year when different qualifications, still unfamiliar to teachers, bed in - all hell breaks loose.

To be fair, Sally Collier, enduring her second exams season as Ofqual’s chief regulator, did not exactly help her own, or schools’, cause. 

“I want the message to be that students have done fantastically well,” she reportedly told the Sunday Times. “All our kids are brilliant!”

No one can deny the importance of praise. But for a regulator, charged with ensuring that exam standards are maintained, to describe all pupils as “brilliant” was more than a little naive, and it played right into the hands of her critics.

However, the “comparable outcomes” approach that her organisation has used - so often the bane of schools, teachers and pupils - was entirely appropriate, this year more than ever.

All have not won prizes, exams and results have not been dumbed down and teachers and pupils should be applauded for their achievements. But, once again, these are being overshadowed by the usual combination of bullshit and political spin.

William Stewart is news editor of Tes. He tweets @wstewarttes

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