A Level algorithm fiasco makes mockery of ‘levelling up’ agenda: The Yorkshire Post says

A-Level results day is always full of both celebrations and commiserations – but this year carries a particular piquancy after exams were cancelled due to coronavirus.
Students at Ark Globe Academy in Brixton, London, receive their A-Level results. PA Photo. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA WireStudents at Ark Globe Academy in Brixton, London, receive their A-Level results. PA Photo. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
Students at Ark Globe Academy in Brixton, London, receive their A-Level results. PA Photo. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Back in March, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said his priority was “to ensure no young person faces a barrier when it comes to moving onto the next stage of their lives”.

But another priority was, in the words of the Department for Education, “to ensure that the distribution of grades follows a similar pattern to that in other years”.

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In those two competing considerations, the latter has won out with maintaining the general pattern of results seemingly taking precedent above individual achievement in the exam board algorithm used to moderate teachers’ predicted grades.

While the proportion of entries awarded an A or above rose to a record high, almost 40 per cent of pupils’ grades were downgraded, often in deeply questionable circumstances. Scores of stories have emerged of students predicted high grades – and achieving them in mock exams – then ending up with far lower results, with obvious implications for what universities and degree courses they can attend.

While private schools have seen their proportion of top grades increase substantially, a survey found 96 per cent of sixth form college principals have reported their students receiving grades lower than predicted by their teachers.

That is a situation which makes an utter mockery of the Government’s much-repeated ‘levelling up’ promises.

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The Association of School and College Leaders said there has been “heartbreaking feedback from school leaders about grades being pulled down in a way that they feel to be utterly unfair and unfathomable”.

Mass appeals will now follow and the last-ditch decision to allow mock exams to be included in that process may help many, although what qualifies as a valid test is yet to be determined.

A-level results day is one of the most memorable moments of teenage life. For too many this year, it will be for entirely the wrong reasons.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

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Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

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Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor

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