The A level fiasco has exposed the craziness of a system where - for no good reason - we think it’s absolutely key to sort a BBC and a BCD student into different universities. Why? My column:
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
A levels may be v g at ranking the ability of young ppl to take an exam in any given day but is that really the be all and end all when it comes to their ability to do well at a job or university?
As ppl like @Samfr & @daisychristo have pointed out though other ways of ranking - teacher assessment, coursework - also have problems with reliability.
But our inability to do a highly reliable end-of-school ranking of young people’s capacity to succeed in the world is only a problem if we think this is something universities & employers can’t do without. But is it?
Our university system is academically stratified to ridiculous levels. Why shouldn’t AAA and BBB students study alongside each other like they do in school? Why do we shun academic selection pre 18 then embrace it on steroids post 18?
And it has real costs... it leads to a highly socially stratified university system that shores up elitism where the most selective universities get to claim lots of kudos simply for selecting the highest-performing A-level students.
Employers also deserve scrutiny for dodgy selection practices... eg CV screening (A levels and degrees) followed by interviews that are actually counterproductive - not only do interviewers not pick best ppl for job, they select ppl who look and think like them.
One example from Texas state medical school shows the uselessness of interviewing applicants there - expanding the intake late once year from the broader pool had zero impact on clinical and academic performance.
This really exposes the limits to and extent of meritocracy in society. By pretending everything is perfectly meritocratic we actually create lots of unfairness.
In a world where we accepted the limits of meritocracy I think we’d have a more comprehensive-style university system & more employers would run their own aptitude tests and assessment centres & would randomly select from those candidates who make the cut to promote diversity.
