Check on inflation that backfired

When schools were closed by the coronavirus pandemic, Gavin Williamson said no child would be “unfairly penalised”, but there were also concerns in the education department and Ofqual of massive grade inflation unless teacher assessments of pupils’ work were restrained. Seen in the context of results from the past 18 years, teachers’ predicted grades – known as centre assessed grades – represented a significant uplift on previous results. The algorithm was intended to bring results back into line, but led to more than a third of predicted A-level grades being downgraded