Teachers get it handy!

[tintin25]

Off the scale results this week then lol

[marty34]

BBC News - GCSEs: Results will be 'solely based on teacher predictions'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-53802428

That's great news.
But the A Level mess has not been sorted.
Assembly will be recalled over it and it seems even Dup MLAs are supporting the recall.

As I said a while back, Weir and the DUP only worried about the pupils from middle class/upper class backgrounds.

Funny how he announced details on a pathway back to school on the same day as A Level results came out.

He's been worse than hopeless and now a major u-turn on GCSE results overnight.  What a farce?

A lot of pupils will be happy come Thursday but we'll see what happens when it's discussed up on the hill later this week.

[Milltown Row2]

Off the scale results this week then lol

I would imagine they ran the model and it was very close to the the actual results from the teachers predictions, and they went 'f**k it' lets just give them what they want and if the results don't keep people happy it will the be the teachers fault!

[tintin25]

Would teachers dare predict below a C for any pupil in Maths or English GCSE?

[marty34]

Would teachers dare predict below a C for any pupil in Maths or English GCSE?

Good question - a lot of pressure back on the local teachers now - could get a mouthful from parents in the local shop....or conversely, they could buy them a few packets of biscuits!!

[johnnycool]

Would teachers dare predict below a C for any pupil in Maths or English GCSE?

Good question - a lot of pressure back on the local teachers now - could get a mouthful from parents in the local shop....or conversely, they could buy them a few packets of biscuits!!

As someone who was part of the first year GCSE's were run, is there still an element of course work in it over both 4th and 5th years?

[marty34]

Would teachers dare predict below a C for any pupil in Maths or English GCSE?

Good question - a lot of pressure back on the local teachers now - could get a mouthful from parents in the local shop....or conversely, they could buy them a few packets of biscuits!!

As someone who was part of the first year GCSE's were run, is there still an element of course work in it over both 4th and 5th years?

I think so - in certain subjects and the students have a rough idea of how they got on in that at the time.

[RadioGAAGAA]

GCSEs are harder, but for A-level, why did they not just extrapolate each individual pupil's results from KS3, GCSE and AS-levels (and any modules they'd been examined on already)?

That removes teachers, removes school bias etc, and bases it solely on the pupil's previous performance.



Regardless of what way they did it - they should have published the model months ago and allowed for review then. At which point everyone can say yay or nay and suggest improvements. A cloak and dagger approach was never going to go down well.

[Milltown Row2]

Would teachers dare predict below a C for any pupil in Maths or English GCSE?

Good question - a lot of pressure back on the local teachers now - could get a mouthful from parents in the local shop....or conversely, they could buy them a few packets of biscuits!!

As someone who was part of the first year GCSE's were run, is there still an element of course work in it over both 4th and 5th years?

I was the first year of GCSE's also, would not have made any difference to my results !!!

I think my daughter has a B from her history course work and modules they have done last year, and was expecting to get an A or A* considering she'd already attained a B just on her previous..

Like I said the teachers are now under spot light now..

As for giving someone no less than a C in English, is there certain levels that teachers put students into that they can only achieve certain grades? Where in that a C grade would be a top grade? I'm not sure, been away from school that long

[imtommygunn]

In answer to your last question there was something like that when I was at school. So you could sit a paper where the best you could get was a C but I suspect it must have been way easier / more limited etc in terms of questions. Like you it's been a long time since I was in school though... That was GCSE only.

[CK_Redhand]

GCSEs are harder, but for A-level, why did they not just extrapolate each individual pupil's results from KS3, GCSE and AS-levels (and any modules they'd been examined on already)?

That removes teachers, removes school bias etc, and bases it solely on the pupil's previous performance.



Regardless of what way they did it - they should have published the model months ago and allowed for review then. At which point everyone can say yay or nay and suggest improvements. A cloak and dagger approach was never going to go down well.

I believe Justin Edwards mentioned either they or the people building the modela didn't have KS3 data.

AS level result was used in the A level model.  I'm not sure why GCSE wasn't... Maybe the data suggested not a strong enough correlation.  Also, it would get criticized by people saying "But GCSE was so long ago.  I've improved so much since then.  It's not fair that GCSE performance should affect my A level result etc. etc." .  I've said before that any time you use a variable to differentiate between people, it will move some up and some down. The people who get moved down will always claim it's unfair.

I agree that the model results should have been published before the decision to use them was made. The fear is that the results would be fairly complicated (remember it's a different model for each subject) containing coefficients for each of the input variables.  The concepts and processes behind predictive model building are quite complicated and would not be understood by the vast majority of the public.  They assure us the models were internally validated robustly and peer reviewed, for what that's worth.  Much harsh criticism would arise from the public that they could never have been used.

[Harold Disgracey]

GCSEs are harder, but for A-level, why did they not just extrapolate each individual pupil's results from KS3, GCSE and AS-levels (and any modules they'd been examined on already)?

That removes teachers, removes school bias etc, and bases it solely on the pupil's previous performance.



Regardless of what way they did it - they should have published the model months ago and allowed for review then. At which point everyone can say yay or nay and suggest improvements. A cloak and dagger approach was never going to go down well.

I believe Justin Edwards mentioned either they or the people building the modela didn't have KS3 data.

AS level result was used in the A level model.  I'm not sure why GCSE wasn't... Maybe the data suggested not a strong enough correlation.  Also, it would get criticized by people saying "But GCSE was so long ago.  I've improved so much since then.  It's not fair that GCSE performance should affect my A level result etc. etc." .  I've said before that any time you use a variable to differentiate between people, it will move some up and some down. The people who get moved down will always claim it's unfair.

I agree that the model results should have been published before the decision to use them was made. The fear is that the results would be fairly complicated (remember it's a different model for each subject) containing coefficients for each of the input variables.  The concepts and processes behind predictive model building are quite complicated and would not be understood by the vast majority of the public.  They assure us the models were internally validated robustly and peer reviewed, for what that's worth.  Much harsh criticism would arise from the public that they could never have been used.

Would this explain perhaps why it appears Chemistry grades seem to be particularly downgraded? My daughter CAG for A/S chemistry was an A and she was awarded a B, a lot of her classmates were given an E. She got A*A* in double award science and was ranked no 1 in her class. She was awarded an A's in maths and physics, coincidentally she is doing Physics in the Royal School Armagh as part of a consortium arrangement. She is doing a 4th A-Level in Design & Technology but no grades were awarded as this year was all project/coursework. We have appealed the grade awarded, when we were in the school last week the teacher was telling us about some horror stories from other schools including one where a student was predicated an A and was given a U! How can you possibly justify that.

[Square Ball]

A-Level grades secret formula revealed as agony continues
A-Level grades secret formula revealed as agony continues

https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/level-grades-secret-formula-revealed-18779608#ICID=Android_BelfastLiveNewsApp_AppShare

Was listening to the news and one head was saying that a private school had stated on social media that their top grades had increased by 40%

[CK_Redhand]

Wow, big if true.  Not sure I'd trust Belfast Live though until this is backed by another source.

[Square Ball]

Wow, big if true.  Not sure I'd trust Belfast Live though until this is backed by another source.

nor I but thought it's worth posting as nothing else out there that I have seen that even tries to explain it