Our poor GCSE students -- victims of the whims of ignorant politicians

Francis Gilbert's picture
 93
GCSE results are out today and it's already clear that the results have been subject to political interference; clearly, our Education Secretary has a keen desire to see more students fail their exams. Students that would have got C and even B grades last year are now being awarded D grades.

How and why has this happened? No doubt Gove and co would say that it's introducing more "rigour" into the system, but in reality, it's no such thing; the GCSE results have been cynically manipulated because he has put unprecedented pressure on the exam boards and Ofqual to lower the number of students getting A*-C grades. It's all about proving a "political" point -- that he's against "grade inflation" -- rather than helping our children progress with their lives. Let's not forget that for many students failure to get 5 A*-C grades at GCSE makes a huge difference to their prospects in life; it means that they can't go onto study at Sixth Form on good courses. It can consign them to the "scrapheap". This has clearly happened to thousands of students today who were expecting to get grades that would help them thrive and become tomorrow's valued citizens. The ultimate truth about "why" this has happened is that Gove and many of his supporters have a deep-rooted fear and loathing of students from poorer backgrounds. Their phoney rhetoric about wanting more poor students at Oxbridge is a smoke-screen; they don't want the poor -- usually living in Labour-voting districts -- to succeed; they want to see them fail, they want a more socially segregated society where the poor are not properly educated, are doing "CSE"-type qualifications, and "kept in their place". This is going to be the net result of this manipulation of the GCSE grades; more affluent students will always find an escape route if they have done badly, but students from poorer backgrounds don't have this sort of back up from home. Furthermore, now that many routes for re-sitting exams have been closed off, they are going to find it impossible to have a second chance. Many of the Coalition's policies -- from the setting up of  free schools to his obsession to return to O Levels -- are ultimately about social segregation; giving students from richer backgrounds even better life-chances and resources, while leaving poorer students much worse off.

How has it happened? It appears that examiners have been instructed not to students on the border-lines between C and D grades the benefit of the doubt where they might have done in previous years. This appears to have been instruction from "on high"; of course, it will never been proved, but this is obviously what's happened.

How sad that there's such a negative atmosphere in the education system at the moment. The Coalition's education policies are truly proving catastrophic from thousands of our young people.

 
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Comments

Ricky-Tarr's picture
Mon, 27/08/2012 - 21:42

Rebecca

Could you show your source for any abandonment of criteria referencing in favour of norm referencing..... partial or complete?
Could you also explain where the 'comparable outcomes approach' fits with these categories?

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Mon, 27/08/2012 - 21:44

Are you sure you should just sack them Ricky? I suspect they would burn well.


Rebecca Hanson's picture
Mon, 27/08/2012 - 21:52

Just listening to teachers Ricky. Suddenly earlier this year the criteria were linked to UMS scores rather than grades so that the numbers of children achieving each grade could be controlled by late intervention.

Comparable outcomes is a pretty generic phrase. Please reference the specific context you want to explore it in.

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Tue, 28/08/2012 - 11:34

Why do you think the children who've been taught in schools which focus on child centred curricula have been taught nothing at all Ricky?

Surely the evidence from Finland contradicts your assertion? This is precisely what they have done. Do you think everyone in Finnish education should resign, apologise, show remorse, be sacked and accept that they are mass murderers too?

Ricky-Tarr's picture
Tue, 28/08/2012 - 12:00

Rebecca

The evidence from Finland supports my assertion.

(Dunno where the child centred meme slipped in.....that's a broader issue)

Finland's curriculum is often criticized (by foolish types) as being too highly academic, too information/knowledge oriented (see Sulonen et al 2010). There's quite a bit of Herbert as well as Dewey in Finnish pedagogy.

That said, since Finland allows just the sort of local variation and autonomy you were suggesting earlier, it's what teachers want it to be in practice.

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Tue, 28/08/2012 - 12:12

So who precisely are the people who should resign, apologise, show remorse, be sacked and accept that they are mass murderers too?

Who are they and what have they done Ricky?

The reason I suggested they would burn well is because I think they are made of straw.

Once of the key things Finland did was to abolish it's version of Ofsted and allow local groups to appoint their own inspectors.

Ricky-Tarr's picture
Tue, 28/08/2012 - 15:18

In her letter to the NAHT's Russell Hobby, Ofqual's Glenys Stacey says:

By way of background, we use what is known as the comparable outcomes approach to maintaining standards. It uses the principle that a student should get the same grade for a qualification as they would have done the previous year.....

I was wondering whether 'comparable outcomes' was just another name for norm-referencing, or was it something different?

Later, she says:

In December 2010, the Ofqual Board gave extensive consideration to using comparable outcomes for the new GCSEs to be awarded in 2011 and 2012 – the paper they discussed is published on our website. The approach had already been used for A level awards the previous summer, and we started using for AS levels the summer before that.

That is quite significant, because it means that this system was adopted in 2009 for AS levels and then progressively rolled out for A-levels and finally GCSEs.

It also means, of course, it started under Ed Balls; not Gove.

http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/files/2012-08-25-letter-to-russell-hobby-naht.p...

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Tue, 28/08/2012 - 19:49

Okay - so in a subject like maths where its harder to criteria reference because results do translate into scores which then translate into grades (rather than the other way round as used to happen in English) you would use QA processes to ensure grade consistency (i.e. that the same child would achieve the same grade on different papers designed to assess the same thing. That's the system Glenys Stacey is referring to here.

But nobody understands why you would replace criteria referencing with another system for an essay subject. Criteria referencing ensures grade consistency in a much more robust way than can ever be achieved through the sample testing processes used in a subject like maths where criteria referencing fails due to the way marks are combined.

When the new system for English was announced a few months ago the only reason anyone could see for it existing was so more children could be made to fail so that Gove could be seen to be delivering on his promises. The fact that there clearly is not grade consistency as there used to be and lots of children who would have passed on the previous paper failed on this one confirms those suspicions.

If I were Russell I would now ask for the details of the systems which were used to ensure grade consistency (which clearly failed) as well as demanding to know why this new system was through to be better than criteria marking.

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Tue, 28/08/2012 - 20:06

Ricky do you have any mental idea as to what the difference between child centred teaching and local autonomy is?

You can have local autonomy which leads to schools deciding to be teacher centred boot camps you know. Do you think that's what they've got in Finland?

Ricky-Tarr's picture
Tue, 28/08/2012 - 23:37

Rebecca Hanson
28/08/12 at 8:06 pm (no reply button)

Yes, of course I do.
But we aren't discussing the merits or otherwise of child-centred learning.
I never mentioned it. And when you brought it up, I quite clearly signalled that it was inappropriate and irrelevant to my point.

My criticisms were aimed at the sort of people who tell you either that transferable skills can be taught in the abstract, that knowledge isn't necessary because Google exists, or that xx% of all information existing today will be obsolete b the time students reach 20 - or other similar rubbish.

As to Finland, you appear to have misunderstood that too. What I was saying was that the national curriculum there, which is surprisingly more subject-based and knowledge/content heavy than one might have expected, is greatly adapted and varied according to local taste and circumstance, so the curriculum in Finland is not as reliable a guide to what actually happens in classrooms as the NC is here (mostly).

Ricky-Tarr's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 00:08

I'm told what they were using is known as "Limen Referencing".


Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 08:12

That just sound like guff obfuscation Ricky.

Limen referencing is a more sophisticated version of criteria referencing but it was developed for the early days of GCSE when it would have been relevant. The intention was to judge the chilld more holistically than criteria referencing does. The early days of GCSE involved all sorts of sophisticated stuff which understood children and expected examiners to read original work in detail. But that was all chucked years ago when GCSEs changed to become very predictable exams just as O-levels had been.

Teachers do most of the marking of GCSE English so the first thing to do to check this out would be to explore the extent to which they and exam markers have been taught to Limen reference.

Here's a paper which explores why it failed in the past:
http://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/ca/digitalAssets/113939_What_Happe...

The very obvious reasons for bringing in Limen referencing is that it can be used as a tool to allow exam boards to fail more people because a zone of unclarity is created between the person who marks the paper and the final results the child is given. I can't think of any other reasons why it would have been brought in in the exam culture we have at this time.

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 08:19

"My criticisms were aimed at the sort of people who tell you either that transferable skills can be taught in the abstract, that knowledge isn’t necessary because Google exists, or that xx% of all information existing today will be obsolete b the time students reach 20 – or other similar rubbish."

Could you name me one such person Ricky?

The most extreme example of this I can think of is that in history children spend some time working on checking the quality of data - thinking about primary and secondary references and how to triangulate information and check the quality of facts and that while they are doing that the content of the topic they are being taught is considered to be less important than the processes they are learning.

A lot of good teachers also allow students to do projects or bits of their own original work some of the time so that they can learn to organise, research, analyse and present their own original work.

Is this what you mean? Should all those teachers be shot?

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 08:33

As to Finland Ricky, since you seem to be asserting yourself as being an expert here, perhaps you could describe how mixed ability teaching in secondary schools works?


Ricky-Tarr's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 11:04

Rebecca


re: Limen referencing etc.

Nope, you're getting various roles confused. I've looked into it and think I understand it properly now.

FYI The best easy guide to how 'awarding' (the setting of grade boundaries) actually works is AQA’s A Basic Guide to Standard Setting available in PDF from the AQA site.

Also useful, to get a view of the standard procedures laid down by the regulator is
Section 6 of GCSE, GCE, Principal Learning and Project Code of Practice
May 2011, available from the Ofqual site.

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 17:07

So what you've referenced are the standard procedures for oversight to ensure that standards are maintained Ricky.

But the evidence suggests that standards were not maintained - that children who would have got Cs at the last sitting got Ds at this one. So a thorough investigation is needed to find out what went wrong. Only thorough investigations are not possible these days as it would be necessary to investigate Gove's interaction with this and Gove's office deletes and hides emails and ensures that anyone who criticises him doesn't get work. So people are just very, very angry because they know Gove is protected by all sorts of illegal and inappropriate means and that instead of there ever being an honest investigation he will simply run a smear campaign in the press designed to discredit anyone who criticised him. All this makes people despise politics and all politicians. It's so darned sad and so damaging for this country as people will not get involved in politics and we need them to.

Janet Downs's picture
Tue, 28/08/2012 - 09:02

Update re Bristol research (cited above) into regional pay and its link with standards (ie GCSE grades and hospital death rates). BBC Radio 4 Today discussed this (28 August). Dr Evan Harris said:

1 The paper, although rigorously researched, had not been peer-reviewed or published in an academic journal.
2 The press release went further than the actual paper.
3 The paper CLAIMED an association between pay and results and says there MAY be an evidence. However, there are other critical factors which the researcher didn’t take into account.
4 It was important to look at the unintended consequences of setting regional pay eg the impact on morale. Regional pay could be an excuse to cut public sector pay rather than raise it.

The BBC interviewer said the research was “eye-catching” and suggested it might be “overstating what might be possible”. There might be circumstances where public sector pay might need to be increased.

Matthew Hancock, MP and former chief of staff to George Osborne, said the research was “another angle” in the argument about regional pay. He wanted public sector professionals to be able to set pay for their staff rather than top-down. He agreed that there were some areas where public sector workers were underpaid.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9747000/9747090.stm

Ricky-Tarr's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 10:49

Rebecca

Could you name me one such person Ricky?

I could name you loads, but as an interesting experiment I Googled using ALL the tell-tale buzz phrases and this (previously unread by me) came up .... ticking all the boxes. It certainly shows I'm not exaggerating (which I take to have been the implication of your question).

The question is, how much do children now need to learn in school that is knowledge based? Do children really need to know what a phrasal verb …when what they really need to be able to do is write a coherent and convincing job application or construct a relevant CV?
…In a post-modernist world where all knowledge has become increasingly mutable and open to challenge, facts go quickly out of date. …Is it Myanmar or Burma? I was told by my geography teacher it was Burma. Then she was right, now she is wrong. You see, facts are changing all the time, and very little appears to remain concrete. So why are teachers wasting their own time, and that of the kids, teaching them facts which in a few years time may be utterly out of date?.... Should we not instead be maximising school contact time by teaching skills, competencies, literacies?... Being able to think critically and create a professional network will be the core competencies of the 21st Century knowledge worker. Why do some teachers still provide children with answers when all the answers are out there on the Web?


The author is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Health, Education and Society, at Plymouth University. This bloke's a prof, so for reasons of academic freedom shouldn't have to face the chop..... just gentle ridicule.

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 16:48

Could you explain which part of what this author is saying you disagree with Ricky. It all looks very sensible to me. The author is explaining that given that we have limited time in the school curriculum we need to think carefully about what to put in and what to leave out and that one aspect of that process of consideration should be that we think about the proportion of the syllabus allocated to teaching facts and the proportion allocated to teaching students how to develop their core personal competencies.

It's a passage designed to provoke discussion and debate.

Are you saying there should be no discussion and debate about this and that children should only learn facts Ricky?

I remember when Gove started spouting on about 'Our Island Story'. It was blindingly obvious that he'd never read it. Have you read it Ricky? I've got my dad's childhood copy if you'd like to borrow it - it would provide useful context for a conversation like this.

Ricky-Tarr's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 17:02

Thanks, Rebecca but we have two copies already - CIVITAS republished it some years ago and two godparents bought it for my daughter!

Could you explain which part of what this author is saying you disagree with Ricky. It all looks very sensible to me.

*Bangs head on desk*

Almost every statement and assumption is wrong, long ago discredited and if you really agree with it, you prove my point in spades.

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 17:27

Could you explain how your position differs to that of the author Ricky?


Janet Downs's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 11:45

Rebecca (no reply button). I'm not sure your questions have been answered adequately (eg "I could name you loads..." but the names are not forthcoming). You're provided with stuff found in a random google search - just a bit of cut-and-pasting with no attempt at analysis. And no links, of course.


Ricky-Tarr's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 13:59

Really, there's no shortage of it out there:

Why are we radical? Because we believe that things are so broke they cannot be fixed by half measures. We need to do things differently, and to do better, if we are to prepare young people for a world in which what is known to be true changes by the hour; a world in which access to information is at the touch of a keyboard, where rote learning of facts must give way to nurturing through education of essential transferable skills that enable the next generation to navigate the information age.

Association of Teachers & Lecturers

The first truly comprehensive curriculum should rebalance the academic, situated in the mind, against those parts of humanity situated in the body, the heart and the soul. Curricula may well be designed by people for whom the mind predominates, but those designers should see that the twenty-first century requires a population with higher levels of social, emotional and moral performance.. Ibid.

How this approach would impact science teaching:

A comprehensive curriculum ..would, for example, recognise that even though we don’t live on a diet of just bread, we should all know how to plant, grow and harvest wheat, how to distribute it, market it and make palatable meals from it. Everyone, not just the farm labourer’s child, needs to know how to grow plants in a changing climate as well as to learn horticulture…... Science is not to be abolished, but refocused to provide the knowledge base for practical activity. (Ibid.)

www.atl.org.uk/Images/Subject%20to%20change.pdf

By contrast:

Over the past thirteen years there has been one consistent theme in educational reform: an attack on knowledge in the school curriculum. Despite widespread complaints about declining standards, the real effect of these reforms has passed largely unnoticed. ... like the spread of death watch beetle, the continual and gradual undermining of schools’ ability to deliver subject knowledge has led to the complete disintegration of education.

David Perks, Institute of Ideas Education Forum November 2010
www.instituteofideas.com/documents/subjects_defense_ef.pdf

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 17:13

Here's the whole of the ATL document. It's really worth reading. It's recommends things like adopting the Finnish approach to assessment:
http://www.atl.org.uk/Images/Subject%20to%20change.pdf
It talks a bit about the problems politicians create when they try to intervene in curriculum planning without first bothering to try to understand children or education.

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 17:34

Now let's look at the point of the second paragraph:
"the twenty-first century requires a population with higher levels of social, emotional and moral performance.."
Is that something you disagree with Ricky? If so why do you disagree with it? Do you think people should become less socially and emotionally mature and less able to make moral decisions? Why?

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 17:37

Paragraph 3 is arguing that children should learn all about the world around them so they have a good understanding of what other people in it do, even if it not an aspect of the world they engage with.

This is a widely accepted standard. It is, for example, why we teach children about all the main faiths. We thing they should have some awareness of what other people believe.

Do you think we should narrow what is taught so that children are not made aware of the lives and perspectives of other people in society Ricky?

Ricky-Tarr's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 22:47

Yes, it is something I disagree with if the meaning of the first sentence is that the 21st century would require higher levels than the 20th.... which is, after all, what it says.

What evidence is there that in the 21st century there will be a greater need for social, emotional and moral performance than in the 20th? In the 20th the people of this country had to summon up social, emotional and moral resources to face two world wars, one of them involving our cities being terrorized by almost nightly air raids? They also had to endure poverty and mass unemployment during the 30s, learn to live under the threat of nuclear annihilation during the cold war. The same century saw a 'sexual revolution', rapid social change and mass immigration.
I dare say there will be challenges in the 21st C but there seems no reason to assume they will be greater than in the past. But even if they are, I doubt school teachers will be of much help.

Ricky-Tarr's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 22:55

Err, no Rebecca

Para 3 is arguing that Physics, Chemistry & Biology should be replaced by breadmaking classes.

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Thu, 30/08/2012 - 07:02

The reason is that at the beginning of the 20th century large numbers of people were employed in professions which did not require those personal capacities. One hundred years later most low skilled repetitive jobs are done by machines.


Rebecca Hanson's picture
Thu, 30/08/2012 - 07:03

No it isn't Ricky. Read it again.


Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 17:48

Your comment from the Institute of Ideas paper is interesting, because there you're tapping into a small group of extremists who also think that the straw men exist. But you're not actually finding the straw men. You're just saying that you've managed to find a very small group of people who also think that the straw men exist. Far more people think that UFOs exist Ricky.


Ricky-Tarr's picture
Wed, 29/08/2012 - 23:00

Come on, make your mind up Rebecca.

You keep oscillating between saying that these bogeys don't exist ("name one", strawmen, UFOs etc) and then saying you are one yourself. So far you have assented to each of the fruitloop propositions. I take it you are not a figment of my imagination?

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Thu, 30/08/2012 - 07:07

Okay Ricky, so what have I done to need to be shot?

I've taught well in four schools and I've been a very successful head of maths - responsible for leading a transformation of results which helped to bring a school out of special measures (where maths results were a stated reason for that school being in special measures).

Janet Downs's picture
Thu, 30/08/2012 - 07:27

Rebecca - I don't think you need to take too seriously anyone who would cut-and-paste an article claiming there had been a "complete disintegration of education". Really? When the 2009 PISA results showed that UK pupils were at the OECD average in Maths and Reading, and above-average in Science - since when has that been "complete disintegration"?

He'll be quoting Delingpole next:

http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2011/06/uk-state-education-is-not-...

Ricky-Tarr's picture
Thu, 30/08/2012 - 10:52

I suspect your idea of "successful" is rather different to mine. But since you so frequently allude to how good you were as ahead of department, do feel free to share the details.

For your last two KS4 cohorts:

1. What were the overall A*-C %ages for Maths?
2. Please break down results by low/middle/high prior attainment.
3. Please indicate the variation from the national average in each year.

Thanks.

Ricky-Tarr's picture
Thu, 30/08/2012 - 10:47

Janet/Rebecca

The author of that article is not a crank. He has been a teacher for 25 years. He is the head of Physics at the Graveney School in Tooting, one of the highest performing comprehensives in South London (and possibly in the country).

Graveney is a respected school, and Perks a respected teacher. He was one of those commissioned by Michael Gove to sit on the Sykes Review of examinations.

Leonard James's picture
Thu, 30/08/2012 - 11:23

This thread provided an opportunity to discuss the biggest problem facing teachers in challenging schools today - the drive to prevent grade inflation whilst simultaneously inflicting ever higher bench marking. It is a shame the discussion has turned into yet another clash about pedagogy.


Rebecca Hanson's picture
Thu, 30/08/2012 - 18:07

Indeed they are different Ricky. I would say that taking cohorts who were drastically underperforming rapidly transforming their results so they surpass FFTDs at every grade boundary is a success. I know that you, of course, consider anything not comparable with results form a grammar school to be failure.

We shall have to agree to differ.

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Thu, 30/08/2012 - 18:10

It's not a comp Ricky. It's a hybrid grammar comp. If, as a teacher, you only dealing with children who arrive at your classroom in a state where they are properly readly and keen to learn no matter what the teaching style the these bubble view points can be sustained.


Rebecca Hanson's picture
Thu, 30/08/2012 - 18:11

Leonard just carry on the conversation you want to have. Nobody is stopping you. If you make interesting points we will respond and there will be an interesting conversation of the type you would like to have. Cyberspace is not full.


Rebecca Hanson's picture
Thu, 30/08/2012 - 20:25

the discussion on this issue has moved to this thread:
http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2012/08/teachers-protest-against-g...

Janet Downs's picture
Thu, 30/08/2012 - 16:20

Leonard - thanks for reminding contributors about the subject of this thread. It was in danger of degenerating into a tedious "my school's better than your school" spat.

Interesting, though, that the Sykes Review of exams has been mentioned. This was supposedly independent but was commision by Gove and published by the Conservatives.

http://m.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2010/03/~/media/3B93B4AA1E6...

Although Gove picked up on some of Sykes's recommendations eg to get universities to develop A levels* he seems to have missed this statement:

"nowhere in the world requires formal external assessment to the extent currently practised in England".

It also pointed out that England was unique in thinking subjects couldn't be taught if they weren't externally assessed. This seems to suggest that the English put undue emphasis on that which can be easily measured (OECD warned about this last year in its Economic Review of the UK).

One of the comments following the Times Higher Educational Supplement's article about the Sykes review said this:

"Our current [A level] system is criterion-referenced; it used to be norm-referenced. You're right, norm-referenced ends grade inflation. But it means a candidate is marked on how everyone else has done, not on what they've shown they've learned."

It's a problem that doesn't seem to be going away.

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=410994&section...

*Gove's idea of involving universities in developing A levels seems to have fallen flat:

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6278614

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Fri, 31/08/2012 - 08:34

Thanks for this Janet,

So the Sykes review was yet another case of Gove picking some of his most extreme supporters to write a review and then ignoring what they say?

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