Grade inflation over A-levels and GCSEs now absurd – Yorkshire Post Letters
THE International Baccalaureate’s global average was steady for the first 50 years and is only marginally up for the two Covid years.
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Hide AdAs for A-levels, the percentage of A grades held fairly steady from the early 1960s to the mid-80s at around nine per cent but thereafter they soared, reaching 27 per cent by 2010.
By then, the same percentage of pupils achieved an A* as achieved an A in 1984. This year was absurd: 45 per cent gained an A while 20 per cent gained an A* (The Yorkshire Post, August 11).
Any attempt to maintain standards is faced with an alliance of government, schools, exam boards, parents and pupils, all of whom want higher grades.
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Hide AdUnderstandably politicians and teachers want to boast about doing a good job, but do parents seriously believe that a grade handed out to half the population will guarantee their child a place at Oxbridge and the professional job-for-life available for the elite five per cent of the 1960s boomers?
From: Leslie Reid, Senior Communications (Press) Officer, Ofqual.
WE read with interest your editorial comment piece (The Yorkshire Post, April 10) on A-levels and GSCEs this year. Thank you for your coverage in recent weeks.
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Hide AdFor your information, we wish to respectfully point out that Simon Lebus, our interim chief regulator, does not believe teacher-assessed grades are superior or fairer to exams in normal years.
Indeed, he is on the record many times as saying exams are our preferred method of assessment in a normal year.
Unfortunately, Simon’s words on Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday have been taken out of context. He was speaking in the context of 2021 arrangements.
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Hide AdUsing “holistic” teachers’ assessments was considered a more equitable approach for 2021 after the Government cancelled exams, with differences in learning in the pandemic between students. But the “snapshot” of exams is preferred in a normal year when students have been taught the same curriculum.
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