Grade fiasco won’t go away

Janet Downs's picture
 61
If the Government thinks that Ofqual’s report upholding this year’s GCSE English grades will dampen the anger then it should read TES for 31 August 2012.

I’m a long-time TES reader and don’t remember the paper ever seething with such rage. The editorial* said that “shiftng a grade boundary a couple of kilometres at the eleventh hour does not in any sane universe constitute an improvement in the quality of learning” and suggest that the whole debacle is a lesson in “the art of cynical manipulation.”

Geof Barton, headteacher of King Edward VI School in Bury St Edmunds, wrote that pupils had been “sacrificed for an ideology”.

The letters are excoriating. A Dorset deputy head says “the obsession with comparative outcomes and the political benefits of grade inflation/deflation have destroyed a world-leading system” while Andy Bowles, former education lecturer at Leeds Metropolitan, asks why anyone is surprised that this government interfered “directly or indirectly in Ofqual”. He says that the existence of both Ofqual and Ofsted relies on their finding “evidence” which does not contradict the government’s ideology. A Hampshire study skills tutor calls for Gove to go, saying he is a “liar and a cheat”. Strong words – and it’s significant that TES printed them on its letter page.

Ian Sharp, an educational consultant, writes that the “hard-line marking” damaged the very students which the government says it wants to help. This accusation is echoed by, among others, the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET), which runs 29 academies, and the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.

And now it appears that Ofqual foresaw a possible problem with modular exams three years ago but failed to implement a solution.

This fiasco goes beyond the debate about normative assessment (something I favoured if GCSE C were to remain a sign of above-average ability) or criterion referencing or even how exam boards set their grade boundaries. Confidence has been severely undermined. It’s time for GCSEs to go. At least that would bring the UK into line with most of the rest of the developed world (see FAQs above for information about exam systems in other countries).

*The editorial doesn’t seem to be available on-line. If you find the link please post it in comments. Letters can be viewed by visiting TES online, finding the 31 August 2012 edition and clicking on letters.

 
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Comments

Ricky-Tarr's picture
Tue, 04/09/2012 - 11:55

ARK Schools paid its managing director/CEO £141,940 in salary and bonus for the last financial year plus £4,623 reimbursement of travel/subsistence expenses.

No other directors received any payments or emoluments of any kind. No other directors received any reimbursement of expenses.No director had any beneficial interest in any contract with the company.

http://www.arkschools.org/annual-accounts

Ricky-Tarr's picture
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 10:52

agov says:
03/09/12 at 7:40 am

(follow the link)

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 11:06

Ricky agov makes it clear that he's using that blog as a reference for a discussion about the legal fees associated with academy conversion.


Ricky-Tarr's picture
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 12:56

Rebecca

Ricky agov makes it clear that he’s using that blog as a reference for a discussion about the legal fees associated with academy conversion.

I sometimes worry about your reading comprehension skills.

Agov began this discussion with a post saying :

The Cayman Islands are just so famous for their charitable works

later, in the same post, he referred to:

...fees to allow Gove to asset strip £1 billion of public assets to the benefit of these ‘charities’.

In the next post agov continues in a similar vein:

They can sell the land they got for nothing at the cost of half a billion on fees to the taxpayer. And send the loot to the Cayman Islands.

agov the asks:

How much are Academy chains siphoning off to pay their ‘executives’(, not to mention sending off to the Cayman Islands).

But for you, this has nothing to do with defamatory allegations about asset stripping or offshore dodgy practice, but some tame discussion about the level of legal fees. Yet another example of how, when reality doesn't suit you, you simply ignore reality and pretend things are as you want them to be.

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 13:03

I don't see that that's an allegation that all people in all academy chains are sending their money to the Caymen islands.

Therefore I don't see that an argument that you think this is not happening in the case of one academy chain is relevant.

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 13:19

Also I don't buy into the idea that if, in discussion, you find that someone in incorrect on something you therefore write off the person not the point. It's not what I do. I just become more attentive to the fact that the points they make may be dubious and may need to be shown to be so.


Ricky-Tarr's picture
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 13:45

Therefore I don’t see that an argument that you think this is not happening in the case of one academy chain is relevant.

It was made specific to ARK by the references to Stanley Fink and Caymans via the link.

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 16:37

by Michael Rosen. Yes I puzzled out what you were on about in the end with your help Ricky. Do you think agov is Michael Rosen? I don't.


Janet Downs's picture
Tue, 04/09/2012 - 15:38

When Glenys Stacey became Ofqual's chief executive last year, the TES reported that the job could be a "poisoned chalice" because Ofqual was expected to enure that England's "exam standards are consistent over time, but also that they are comparable to the latest standards in other countries."

It's actually impossible to compare GCSEs with standards in other countries because very few have externally-set exams at age 16 (see FAQs above). Except tiny Singapore, of course, which is probably why Gove keeps mentioning the ex-colony.

TES also wrote that Gove was demanding the Ofqual must "guarantee exam standards match the best in the world" (it's even enshrined in the Education Act). And only yesterday in Parliament he was saying that Ofqual was independent and free from political interference.

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6081609

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm120903/debt...

Janet Downs's picture
Tue, 04/09/2012 - 16:07

Another of Gove's favourite heads has criticised the changing grade boundaries. Yesterday in Parliament, Stephen Twigg, shadow Secretary of State for Education, told the House that Sally Coates," head of the excellent Burlington Danes academy, who spoke alongside the Secretary of State at last year’s Conservative party conference" had said: “It is blatantly unfair to move the goalposts, without warning, midway through the year." Twigg added that Coates had described the situation as “rough justice.”


Janet Downs's picture
Tue, 04/09/2012 - 16:13

Gove told the House yesterday "that Ofqual is doing more work this week and will be talking not just to teachers’ representatives but to all interested parties." He said he hoped that the MP who asked a question about the moving of the grade boundaries would make a submission to Ofqual.

I suspect that Ofqual will be inundated with submissions.

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