Teachers get it handy!

[Owen Brannigan]

Owen, in your experience would you agree it's much easier to get your 3 As now compared to 1975/85 or even 95?

Is this down to

a) Better teaching
b) Online and additional resources
c) Dumbing down of content?

Just a few random Friday night thoughts while watching Radiohead at Glastonbury. (Much better than poor Kris)

No doubt.  Grade inflation has occurred and is not the fault of the young people in schools or who have left in the last ten years.  It is down to a number of factors:

1. Modularisation
All A level courses have been broken down into individual modules which can be taken on their own and repeated until the highest score is achieved.  Aggregation of the modular scores allows for high scores in some to compensate for lower scores in there difficulty.  AS level modules have the same value as A2 level modules yet the degree of difficulty of A2 course is much greater.  You can max out AS modules to compensate for not doing as well at A2 level.  Some modules within AS and A2 are easier than others, e.g. I recall in Maths you can substitute a module in statistics for a pure maths modules which is far more difficult.  In RE A level you can take history modules instead of the more difficult ethics modules and the end result is the same but an easy route through history.

All modular exams are sprints with small amounts of material covered by each one. When A levels had to be taken at the end of two years with a series of 3 hour exams it was much more difficult to achieve higher grades.

2. Coursework
Although coursework has been tightened up in recent years it is still easier to gain marls through this route than through exams and it suits those who can work hard but find that exams do not suit them.  Intervention in coursework beyond the exam candidate occurs.

3. Grading
Exams are no longer normative referenced (think that is the right term).  Until recent years, I think up to the end of the 80s, the grades awarded at A level were statistically calculated regardless of the achievement of the candidates.  the same percentage of students could gain E grade or better each year, it was 69% and applied to all subjects.  The percentages of candidates assigned to each grade were then assigned accordingly.  This was a cop out by the exam boards.  they could set papers that were hard or easy and then apply the percentages to each grade by statistical means.  In 80s, this was also applied to O levels and one year the pass mark for Maths ended up at the low 20% and A grades were awarded to those over 50% because the paper was so difficult no one did well but the same grade profile existed.  So, no matter how much you knew it did not matter in terms of the grade you would get, you just had to do better than your peers, it was a competition.  I used to joke to A level Chemistry students that after half an hour they should put their hands up to ask for more paper, (in those days exams weren't structured in booklets as now) this would have a negative effect on the others and give them an edge.  So, students competed against teacher other and not the exam paper when it came to grades.

Since the early 90s grades have been awarded on the basis of criterion referencing.  This means you get marks according to the amount of correct answers you provide and these raw marks are converted to standard marks, e.g. 600 for a paper and 480 gets an A.  The candidate now competes against the paper and not his peers.  The more you can answer the higher the grade you get regardless of how many others have given as goos answers.  Hence we have tight mark schemes and higher grades.

Structured Exams
Recent trends have led to exam papers being highly structured. A question is broken down into its component sub parts and each part answer is marked and contributes to the final score.  Older papers just set a question and the student was not led through a series of questions contributing to each other.  Candidates no longer have to know everything, as I used to advise, many answers can be found on the exam paper if you study the questions properly instead of blindly trying to answer individual sub parts.

Playing the game
Schools and particularly the teachers know how to play the exam game and strategies are developed within subject disciplines to help students maximise their scores towards a final grade.  Everything is worked out to ensure that students follow an assessment path that will get the best score.  This occurs in many ways within subject areas but some will include analysis of modules to find the easiest, e.g. choosing the correct books, plays and poetry in English Lit, the periods of History, human or physical geography etc.  Many teachers are exam experts and dispense advice to students on which modules to repeat to maximise scores.

Schools will offer subjects that are more suited to some students than others to maximise results.  Not all A levels are equal under criterion referencing.  In the old days all subjects were norm referenced and made equal in terms of the percentage of students achieving a particular grade.  Criterion referencing means that a student can take 'easier subjects' and get into a better course than someone just randomly picking A levels in an Arts provision.  You look at grades and the raw scores required to achieve them and decide which subject offers the most A  grades.  It is not a criticism of subjects or students taking them.  Vocational A levels with higher levels of coursework raised the number A grades overnight as they suited some students and allowed for more intervention by those other than the student, just look at coursework marks. Most of these subjects had 60% coursework, statistics showed that these subjects had students getting almost full marks in coursework but struggling to pass the exam module but still getting an A grade.  The use of BTEC assessment took this to a different level because the teacher started assessing students form the first day and just had to hand back work to make sure each assessment sub criterion was ticked to award the distinction grade.  BTECs allowed students to avoid exams completely and depend on teacher assessed modules where intervention was rampant in terms of marking and repeating until the right answer was achieved.

Better teaching
Better teaching has been achieved as criterion referencing of assessment has meant that the teacher can teach precisely to the exam and have the students ready for the exam down to the final detail.  Years ago with norm referencing you just hope d your students were better than those in other schools, teachers competed against each if they wanted to improve results.  Now, they compete against the exam specification and win.

There are still those who shouldn't teach at A level but schools have worked this out and put those who are best in the top team of the school.  A level teaching is regarded by teachers as a measure of ability and esteem in which they are held. 

A wider range of courses and more modern exam specifications have rejuvenated some teachers and given them a keener interest in their subjects and desire to teach for their own enjoyment.

So, what are you saying?

1. O Levels from 1975 and A levels from 1977 are as good as 2.1 degrees from a whole bunch of universities in 2017.

2. You can't compare apples to oranges.

3.  It has never been easier for a large number of students to get 3 A grades for the reasons set out above.

[Rois]

What difference would it make? You don't have to read a novel a week to be able to teach kids about Macbeth every year.

I'd like to think a teacher teaching A Level students has a bit of enthusiasm for their subject. But hey, you always try to pick a fight with me, so go for it.

[tonto1888]

What difference would it make? You don't have to read a novel a week to be able to teach kids about Macbeth every year.

I'd like to think a teacher teaching A Level students has a bit of enthusiasm for their subject. But hey, you always try to pick a fight with me, so go for it.

They will surely have read any books on the syllabus and if English is anything like the sciences then there is little room for off syllabus teaching which I always found me to be a shame

[Owen Brannigan]

Tick tock getting louder as the clock runs down to the final whistle on Friday.

[Over the Bar]

Entry qualification for st Mary's college. Belfast is A AN
600 applications for 100 places
Applicants also have to pass an interview

Only the top performing students accepted

Drop out rate is about 3 %

Hardly shoddy

Hardly quantum physics either tho...

[delgany]

Sorry should have read  AAA or AAB grades.

In my day that was quantum physics !

[Farrandeelin]

Tick tock getting louder as the clock runs down to the final whistle on Friday.

My final whistle was last Friday.

[FermGael]

The final whistle is at 1 today

[Hardy]

What's the teacher equivalent of Black Eye Friday?

[FermGael]

Let's get full Thursday??

[johnneycool]

What's the teacher equivalent of Black Eye Friday?

With the high percentage of females in the profession it would have to be Bitchy Thursday.

[JimStynes]

 

[armaghniac]

Teachers are on the public payroll, they should be made steward Orange parades and the like to give them something to do.

[ONeill]

Bored.

[bennydorano]

You have all been on holiday from the first week of June from what I've witnessed with my 3rd year, P6 & P7. None of the 3 of them have done a stroke! Bomber might be right