NEW GCSE MEASURES EXPLAINED
FOR years, the most important benchmark of a pupil’s performance at GCSE has been a simple one: Did they get five A* to C GCSEs.
For a school, a pupil getting five or more A* to C GCSEs (ideally including Maths and English or Welsh) was regarded as a success and the higher the percentage of pupils who achieved that level, the better the school was doing.
However, amid criticism this led schools to put disproportionate effort into getting children who might get a D into the all important C grade at the expense of helping all pupils achieve their potential, this year it is changing in Wales.
From September 2019, the traditional secondary school rating
system of the gold standard five A*s to C GCSE grades will be scrapped by the Welsh Government and replaced with a points score.
From next month secondary school performance will be measured by the Welsh Government on a “capped nine points score” which includes reporting on GCSEs which indicate a pupil’s outcomes in literacy, numeracy and science. The new measure is known as the The Capped 9 Points Score (see panel below).
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We have been working with secondary schools on a range of interim performance measures that place a greater focus on raising our aspirations for all learners.
“These new measures will recognise the achievement of higher grades, as well as the efforts of pupils who do not achieve the C grade, removing the narrow focus on the C/D grade boundary of the previous measures.
“The new measures will include the best outcomes in literacy, numeracy and science GCSEs, as well as pupils’ best results for six other GCSEs, or equivalent approved qualifications, in addition to the Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate points score.”
CHANGES to the way schools in Wales are measured on their GCSE performance are to be welcomed.
The gold standard of five A* to C grades was a threshold that failed everyone.
It didn’t acknowledge the achievement that a D grade, or lower, is for some learners, and was too low a bar for those who should have been pushed further but may have been left aiming for Cs because, at the end of the day, that was all that mattered.
Teachers and schools cannot be criticised, under that system, for wanting to target their efforts at borderline C-D pupils to push them up to that all-important C to the possible detriment of all others.
No performance measure will ever be perfect, and nothing will ever succeed in pleasing
everyone, but the new capped point score system looks more broadly at what has actually been achieved by schools and all their pupils.
This can only be a good thing and may succeed in helping push up results and improve education attainment.
Chasing Cs must be dispiriting for teachers and learners.
The old system is a false measure of success because it does not recognise the hard work in some schools – and means some potentially higher-achieving pupils don’t get the help they need to get Bs to A*s.
From September 2019 secondary school performance will be measured on the new capped nine points score which includes reporting on GCSEs which indicate a pupil’s outcomes in literacy, numeracy and science.
The Welsh Government says this is also part of its drive to push the highest achievers.
For the first time it will be the first result only that counts, not retakes. This is aimed at discouraging schools from entering students for exams early, and possibly risking them not getting the highest grade they can.
For students themselves, they’ll still need the all-important A*s to Cs for further and higher education and jobs.
Whether this move succeeds in pushing up standards won’t be seen immediately.
Last week’s record top-grade A-level results indicate that moves to push the most academically able are beginning to pay off in sixth form.
Now all we need is a slightly more catchy name for the new performance measure.