Five months that shaped the future for students
August 9 The UK Statistics Authority is urged to investigate both the English and Scottish exam regulators amid concerns that they risk undermining public trust in statistics.
August 11 John Swinney announces a major reversal, saying all the results awarded for the Scottish equivalents of GCSES and Alevels, would be replaced with teachers’ recommendations. He admits: “We got it wrong.”
March 18 Education Secretary announces GCSES and A-level exams will be cancelled. He promises to ensure all students will get the grades they “need and deserve”. He said no child would be “unfairly penalised” as a result of the decision.
August 6 Amid a growing row and criticism of Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney, the Scottish Education Secretary, right, Ofqual announces Scots schools will be allowed to challenge “unfair” grades.
August 12 The Government tries to head off criticism by allowing students to appeal on the basis of their mock Alevels. Gavin Williamson, left, says that this “triple lock” will mean the system is fair.
March 21 Grades will be based chiefly on mock exams and “nonexam assessment”, the Government says. Any students unhappy with grades will be able to appeal and have the opportunity to sit an exam “at the earliest reasonable opportunity”.
July 21 Ofqual reveals that A-level marks were bumped up by 12 per cent on average and GCSE marks by 9 per cent when teachers submitted predicted grades for their pupils to exam boards.
July 26 The Daily
Telegraph reveals most results will be decided by statistical modelling rather than predicted grades. Sources say predicted grades will serve “little or no purpose” in the modelling that determines the majority of results.
August 13 A-level results day. It emerges 39 per cent of students have had their marks downgraded from predicted grades, prompting students to complain they had been let down by the system. Head teachers call for an urgent review.
July 10 Education select committee publishes a report that warns that the “Wild West” of this year’s exam grading appeal system risks benefiting the well-off and “sharpelbowed” parents at the expense of more disadvantaged pupils
July 27 Schools told to put “less weight” on GCSE results this year when admitting pupils to sixth forms, in the first admission by the regulator that grades may be untrustworthy. Head teachers should offer “greater flexibility” to students, according to Ofqual.
August 4 School exam results day in Scotland sees close to 125,000 students’ marks downgraded. It emerged pupils from poorer backgrounds were more likely to have been downgraded.
August 15 Mr Williamson insists there will be “No U-turn, no change”. He adds that in Scotland there are now “no checks and balances” in the grading system and this “degrades every single grade as a result”.
May 22 The exam regulator Ofqual, chaired by Roger Taylor, right, warns teachers’ predicted grades for GCSES and A-levels are “highly likely” to be changed “in the interests of fairness”. Ofqual says exam boards will use a statistical model.
June 30 Students will not be allowed to appeal predicted grades unless they believe they are victims of discrimination or bias, it is revealed. Pupils will also be allowed to appeal if something “systematic” has gone wrong.
July 4 Statisticians warn students in the middle of their class could suffer the most under the grading system. They say there is a “high degree of uncertainty” around the grades of those judged average by teachers.
August 17 A spectacular U-turn as the Education Secretary says that teachers’ predicted grades will be used for all A-level and GCSE results. Mr Williamson’s announcement brought policy in England in line with Northern Ireland and Wales.
August 16 The Daily
Telegraph reveals that key figures at the exam regulator want to ditch their own algorithm as some believe that the algorithm has already led to a “haemorrhaging” of public trust in qualifications and that performing a U-turn is the “least bad option”. Sources said they now think that it is “politically unacceptable”
Ofqual allows predicted grades amid exams chaos By Camilla Turner education editor TEACHERS’ predicted grades can now be used by students who are appealing against their A level or GCSE results