A-level grades could be scrapped to end top marks ‘free-for-all’
Ministers look at replacing alphabetical system with numbers after predictions resulted in a surge in As
TRADITIONAL A-level grades face being scrapped under government plans, amid fears that record numbers of top marks have rendered the results “meaningless”.
An overhaul of the marking system to tackle grade inflation could result in the alphabetical “A-E” grades being dismantled and replaced with numbers, The Daily Telegraph understands.
The shake-up is one of the options under consideration by the Department for Education (DFE) as concerns grow that two years of using teachers’ predictions to decide results instead of exams has created a grading “free-for-all”.
Nearly half of A-levels, 44.8 per cent, were given an A or A* this year, almost double the proportion of top marks awarded before the pandemic in 2019.
Private schools saw a larger percentage-point increase in top grades compared with state comprehensive schools, with 70.1 per cent of all A-levels awarded an A or A* versus 39.3 per cent, up from 44 per cent and 20 per cent in 2019, leading to accusations that this year’s system has worsened inequality.
Teacher predictions also seem to have favoured girls, with 46.9 per cent of female pupils awarded A or A* compared with 42.1 per cent of their male peers, whereas boys were performing better pre-pandemic.
Schools in London also saw a larger rise in top grades compared with other areas, with almost half of all grades in the capital (47.9 per cent) graded A or A*, up from 26.9 per cent in 2019.
One MP said the growing gap in attainment was a “national disaster”. A senior DFE source said a “big conversation” had now started in government about how to rein in grade inflation.
“Obviously ministers don’t want it to continue and that’s exactly why we want to move back to exams,” they said.
“We need to push on and make sure we get back to pre-pandemic levels.”
Changing the actual grading system – like when GCSE grading was changed – would take a while to implement.
“There is debate to be had about that and we would need a consultation. We are not ruling it out,” the source said.
For the past four years, GCSES have been assessed with a numerical system which uses grades nine to one, rather than A* to G, as part of a package of reforms designed to toughen up syllabuses, cut out coursework and counter grade inflation.
A similar overhaul of A-level grades would be the biggest shake-up of the exams in 70 years.
The last reform to the exam marking system took place over a decade ago, when the A* grade was introduced in 2010 to help universities differentiate between the brightest students.
Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, said that his department would be “looking at different measures” to tackle grade inflation, adding: “There are a whole range of policy options we can look at.”
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “In terms of actually making sure there is a feeling and understanding of the difference between grading where we are currently and grading where we are in the future, that’s something we are looking at in great detail.” Asked whether he would consider a switch to a numeri- cal grading system, he said such a change would “take a little bit longer to be implemented” and would not be ready for next year’s exams.
His comments suggest that grade inflation will continue for a number of years, until any new system is ready to be implemented.
Mr Williamson has said he wants exams to return in 2022, but with a number of proposed measures in place to make up for disruption caused by the pandemic, such as telling students in advance what topics will be on test papers. Critics have accused the Government of allowing A-levels, which were a gold standard qualification, to “descend into meaninglessness”. Neil Sheldon, a former chief examiner, said: “Whatever method we have as a form of assessment, we have to know what we are comparing it to.
“What we have at the moment is something coming close to a free-fo-rall. It doesn’t make sense to say 45 per cent of students are worth an A or A*.
“If you are trying to say that this is the same level of achievement as it was in 2019, it just isn’t true. It’s as simple and blunt as that.” Mr Sheldon, who
has previously advised the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual), added that teachers’ predictions required some form of standardisation “to avoid a descent into meaninglessness through inflation”.
Meanwhile, Robert Halfon, the Tory chairman of the education select committee, said that “a hard rock cake of grade inflation” had now been baked into exam results.
“It is going to be hard to unbake that,” he said. “A-levels were seen as the gold standard of qualifications but now they are losing their currency. It will take a very long time to bail this one out.”
Experts have warned of the dangers of failing to act over grade inflation. Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: “The problem for the Government if they don’t do something is you end up with lots of bespoke university entry exams and that is just so contrary to an equitable system.
“If A-levels become less useful in terms of selection for university then something has to give. This is not unprecedented. GCSES changed from letters to numbers in the past and the A* didn’t used to exist. These recalibration processes have happened before and they could happen again.”
However, Prof Jo-anne Baird, director of Oxford University’s education department and a member of Ofqual’s independent standards advisory group, said it would be “hugely costly” to overhaul the entire grading system. She said switching to a numerical grading system would be a “superficial change” that “would not get us anywhere”.
A-levels have been dogged by grade inflation for decades. For the first 35 years of their existence the pass rate was close to 70 per cent. From the late 1980s, the quotas used to hold grades in check were replaced by a standardsbased system whereby anyone who met the criteria received the grade irrespective of how many there were. This led to decades of grade inflation, with the pass rate rising each year until it reached 97.6 per cent in 2010 when Ofqual was created. The regulator tackled grade inflation with “comparable outcomes”, a statistical method for keeping the proportion of top grades roughly the same year-on-year.
The algorithm used to award grades last year had been designed to uphold the principles of comparable outcomes so that the number of top marks was broadly in line with previous years. But when the algorithm was ditched after a public outcry, teachers’ predicted grades led to another round of inflation, taking the pass rate to 100 per cent for the first time.
Ofqual said: “We have no plans to change the A level grading system.”
‘If A-levels become less useful in terms of selection for university then something has to give’