Don’t panic. Tougher A-levels are succeeding

The reformed exams are not easier – but neither are they designed to be more difficult to pass

On the face of it, the new “tougher” A-levels do not appear to have achieved their objective, which was to restore confidence in our examination system, not least by tackling grade inflation.

The percentage of students getting the top A-level grades increased every year between 1997 and 2010, rising from 15.7 per cent to 27 per cent. The figure stabilised in 2011 and then began to fall slightly, but this year it has gone up again, with 26.3 per cent of entrants getting A*/A compared to 25.8 per cent in 2016. If the idea was to replace an old, devalued currency with a new, more robust one, it does not seem to have worked.

Not so fast. There is still every reason to have faith in the reforms, if we properly understand what they are seeking to achieve.

First, the new system is not designed to reduce the percentage of students getting top grades, which would have unfairly penalised this year’s A-level students, as well as their successors. If the ability of this year’s examinees is no lower than last year’s, why should they get poorer results? According to Ofqual, the exam regulator, the increase in the percentage getting top grades is within the acceptable range for a system of this sort. And fewer students got E or higher this year than last, so gains at the top are offset by losses at the bottom.

It is also worth noting that the new, reformed A-levels, in which entrants are assessed entirely on their performance in the exam and not on coursework, only applied to 13 subjects this year, with the remainder due to change in 2018 and 2019. In those 13 subjects, the percentage of students getting A*/A did actually fall slightly, from 25 per cent in 2016 to 24.3 per cent.

Nevertheless, Ofqual is not going to cite this as evidence that the new reformed A-levels are in fact tougher. They are not supposed to be any harder to pass. Rather, the reason for the decline is because this year’s entrants in these subjects had slightly lower prior attainment than last year’s. The only change that comes as a result of grade boundaries being adjusted is a slight increase in the proportion of students getting A*/A in French, German and Spanish. That is because Ofqual made it too hard to achieve the top grades in those subjects in previous years, having slightly over-estimated the number of native speakers taking the exams.

Ofqual’s messaging around the reforms, which also affect some of this year’s GCSES, can admittedly be a little confusing. After all, why are the new exams likely to command greater public confidence, and be more trusted by universities and employers, if they are not any harder than the exams they have replaced?

Let me help: we need to distinguish between “more difficult” and “more rigorous”. The new exams are linear (exams at the end) not modular, with AS results no longer counting towards students’ final grades, and there has been more input from universities in designing the A-level courses. In that sense, they’re more rigorous.

But, to repeat, they are not supposed to be more difficult. A student who would have got AAB in old money should be equally capable of getting AAB in new money and Ofqual has built in various safeguards to ensure that any rise or fall in results from one year to the next occurs only as a result of real changes in a cohort’s overall ability and not because of grade inflation (or deflation).

There is one final point that is worth addressing. For the first time in 16 years, boys outperformed girls when it came to the percentage getting A*/A – 26.6 per cent and 26.1 per cent, respectively. Some critics of the reforms will claim this is largely due to boys performing better than girls in the 13 new A-levels (which they did). They will say it is because wholly linear exams favour boys, who are marginally less likely to suffer from stress.

However, it would be premature to link any changes in the performance of boys and girls to the reforms. Ofqual points out that the gender differences this year are tiny and within the acceptable range. It is also worth noting that when GCSE English changed from being 100 per cent coursework to being more examined it had no effect on the performance of boys or girls over the long term, so there is no reason to think this year’s gender imbalance will continue. Girls may be ahead next year.

There were always going to be teething problems when the new exams were introduced, but that should not detract from the benefits. The AS component of A-levels was a huge distraction, with students spending precious time revising when they could have been absorbing more knowledge.

In general, both GCSE and A-level students will be tested far less often as a result of these reforms – good news if you’re concerned about schools becoming “exam factories”. And while A-levels might not have become more difficult, they are not about to become any easier. In our all-must-winprizes society, we should be thankful for that.

Toby Young is the author of ‘What Every Parent Needs to Know: How to Help Your Child Get the Most Out of Primary School’ FOLLOW Toby Young on Twitter @toadmeister; READ MORE at telegraph.co.uk/opinion