Grade Inflation in Higher Education

The Editor

The Times of London

Sir,
Grade inflation in Higher Education ('Universities stand accused after top degrees soar' The Times 15/01/2016) is an inevitable consequence of the policy to apply market forces to the sector. Like independent schools who have operated in this environment for decades, universities are businesses selling education and competing to attract students. Unlike independent schools, universities not only teach but also can determine their own results. Given the economic pressures on these institutions to fill places, there is no incentive for them award low degrees. With three-quarters of degrees awarded at Upper-Second or First Class, the time has come for a separation of teaching and degree-awarding powers, as there is in secondary education.
Yours faithfully,
Mark S Steed
Director
Jumeirah English Speaking School, Dubai.

The Sorry Truth about A-level Re-Marks

I hadn't spotted it in the paperwork and I am yet to meet anyone who did, but OCR have changed the way in which they do re-marks.

Re-mark v. Review

Previously, when a candidate or centre believed that the original examiner (Examiner1) to have awarded the wrong mark, the script was re-marked by a different examiner (Examiner2), this mark took precedence and overall grades were adjusted accordingly. This no longer happens in every case.

The process now applied by OCR is not actually to re-mark the script, rather it is to review that the original mark is in the correct band. So long as Examiner1 put the essay into the right band, the mark remains unchanged. Only in those cases where Examiner2 places the mark into a different band will the mark change.

This is borne out by our Berkhamsted School's A2 OCR re-mark statistics:

• 26/35 re-marks have seen no change
• 3/35 have seen a change of ≤3
• 1/35 has seen a change of 4-6 marks
• 5/35 have seen a change of >6 marks

The inherent injustice of the OCR Review system:

In cases where Examiner1 gives a mark that is at the bottom of the band, it is quite possible that Examiner2 might place the pupil in the same band but with a mark up to 4 marks higher on each question (depending on the band). However, so long as the mark given by Examiner 2 is in the same band, it is the Board’s policy that the mark will remain unchanged.

Thus it is quite possible for a candidate who has been placed at the bottom of a band on two essays to be evaluated by Examiner2 as being 8 marks or more better than the evaluation of Examiner1 and yet not their remark be returned with no change in the mark because it falls within the same band. For those candidates who fall just short of a grade boundary, eight marks can be the difference between going up a grade and gaining a place at their chosen university.

Marking Low: A case study

Sadly, those of us who have worked within the British Examination System for a number of years are only too aware that there is a considerable range in the quality of marking both at GCSE and A-level. If Examiner1 consistently places candidates at the bottom of the correct banding, then those candidates and that centre will be penalised and now have lost the mechanism to receive an uplift within the band.

Because Centres can now request to see the A-level scripts, we have a growing body of evidence that, here at Berkhamsted, we have suffered from at least one examiner disproportionately placing pupils at the bottom of band. (He placed 7 out 10 scripts at the bottom of bands). Other schools are reporting the same phenomenon.

We have long known that some examiners are more generous than others. Requesting that a script is re-marked gives a candidate and centre the opportunity to to ensure that candidates are not penalised by an excessively harsh marker. The OCR review system undermines this.

OCR: Recognising Achievement - I don't think so! #bringbackremarks

A-level should not be a political football - it's not fair on the players!

As with the National trend reported in the Press, Berkhamsted's A-level results are down a little on last year.

It is disappointing, but it was no surprise. The jungle drums have been beating for weeks that the Secretary of State wanted the headline that this Government had put an end to grade inflation - and he got it. There is little doubt that there was top-down pressure on chief examiners. Members of the teaching staff who are A-level examiners commented that there were tighter marking directives from Chief Examiners than seen in previous years.

There is a fundamental problem in implementing a "reduce the top grades" policy and that is that AS-level accounts for 50% of the overall A-level grades. By the time a typical Berkhamsted pupil takes their final A2 modules, he or she is often sitting on a high A grade (with marks to spare) that means that he or she only needs a B or in some cases a high C grade to attain an overall A grade. To manipulate the results means moving the A2 goal-posts a long way.

This is not just special pleading from a disappointed Headteacher. Berkhamsted is not alone. Many schools are experiencing the same phenomenon. The Admissions tutor for History at a leading Russell Group university commented in an email today:

“My personal impression is that History seems to have been rather harshly marked across the board (lots of students with glittering GCSEs and AS levels, suddenly falling short at A-level)."

And that brings me on to University Entrance

University Entrance

Michael Gove picked a bad year to move the goal posts, for the changes in HE funding meant that universities were pushed into giving offers of at least AAB to qualify for the higher (£9k p.a.) funding. It is quite apparent that Gove’s fiat has caught University Admissions tutors on the hop.

The situation in Berkhamsted at 1800 yesterday was:

• 67/147 met first choice offer (46%)
• 46/147 met reserve offer (31%)
• 34/147 missed both offers and need to use clearing (23%)

The situation at 1300 today was:

• 109/147 met first choice offer (74%)
• 23/147 met reserve offer (16%)
• 15/147 missed both offers and need to use clearing (10%)

42 (28%) pupils missing the the grades for their first choice university being offered places is unprecedented. Again, Berkhamsted is not alone - a number of other independent schools have experienced the same phenomenon.

So, despite all the angst of the past 36 hours we are back to where we should be with a lot of happy pupils and parents who have got into the universities of their choice.

But was it all worthwhile? Mr Gove may have got his headline, but he has gone a long way to undermine the confidence of teachers in the system. Pupils who have worked hard for two years end up with a bitter taste in their mouths as their hard work is not recognised by the examiners.

A-level should not be a political football - it simply isn't fair on the players!