Thread by @lewis_goodall

Gavin Williamson updating the Commons on exam plans for this summer

Says the consultation had more than 100,000 responses

Says the government and Ofqual “have considered all of them very carefully”

“The most important thing we can do is to make sure the system is fair. Fair to every student...students will receive a grade based on what they were taught not on what they have missed.”

“Teachers can choose a range of evidence to support their assessments including coursework, in class assessments and the use of optional questions provided by exams boards and we will of course give guidance on how to do this fairly and consistently.”

That’s...going to be tough.

“Exam boards will be issuing grade descriptions to help make sure grades are fair and consistent. These will be broadly pegged to performance standards from previous years, so that teachers and students are clear what is expected at each grade.”

Interesting. But given point of teacher assessment is to take account of local and even individual circumstances, not sure how that’s going to work in practice.

“By doing this, combined with a rigorous quality assurance process, are just two of the ways that the system will be fair and consistent. Quality assurance by the exam boards and a meaningful check on the system meaning we can root out malpractice.”

Williamson says the govt will also set out an appeals system. The basis for a system is going to be very shaky. Presumably teachers will already have incorporated all available data of which there will be presumably be relatively little.

“I can confirm no algorithm will be used in this process. Grades will be awarded on the basis of teachers’ judgement.”

Williamson confirms that exams for technical and other qualifications won’t go ahead either and a similar grading system will be in place as for A-levels/GCSEs.

Williamson has emphasised “consistency” more than any other term in his statement. But in answer to Steve McCabe he’s just given a very good demonstration of why that’s going to virtually impossible in the system he’s just announced. McCabe asks if disparities in IT provision...

...and home learning environments are going to be taken into account. Williamson answers that teachers are best positioned to make that assessment. So it’s handed to them and not part of official guidelines. Obviously raises prospect of different teachers doing different things.

Sir Jon Coles, who has quit as an advisor to Ofqual in protest at the government’s exam strategy, responds to the proposals:

https://twitter.com/joncoles01/status/1364929106538885120

Consistency was such a weird point for the Education Sec to emphasise. The whole point of the system he outlined was to recognise the fact there has been such inconsistency in educational experience. To therefore say it’ll be consistent is illogical and impossible to achieve.

This has the potential to get messy.

For example, GW’s says that an investigation will take place if a school’s grades are much higher than previous years but he’s asking them to assess something different to previous years. So surely there could well be dramatic differences?

And yet just a paragraph or two down GW’s letter to Ofqual says game is unconcerned if the national distribution of grades follows a similar profile to previous years.

So- why is it a problem if particular schools’ pattern is substantially different?

Again, GW’s appeals process shows how consistency ain’t gonna happen. Students get to see evidence behind their grade *before* it’s submitted. Not only could that make for pressured conversations for teachers the process will inevitably be handled differently in different places.

Also you can imagine parents getting involved at this point. Again, yielding different results in different places and the fear will be pushy, middle class parents exert most pressure.

Letter goes on to discuss the fate of private entry candidates (students taking exams not attached to a school or college, often for retakes as a result of bad or tragic circumstances or home schooling and others).

I covered this last year and they've had a really rough ride.

Ie they didn’t get teacher assessed grades last year because they have no teachers.

GW recognises the problem but rules out exams just for them. Says they should be assessed in same way as others.

How this will work in practice is unclear when without a teacher they’ll have little evidence to be assessed on. Hands that thorny issue over to Ofqual who will have to issue guidance on the subject.

Danger is that once again they’ll get left behind.

Vocational and other courses as a route to HE will be assessed in same way as A-levels/GCSEs. Exams for vocational courses as a route to work or professional competence which require practical examination for safety reasons will go ahead.

In Ofqual’s response, they emphasise that consistency will be difficult and this year’s results will look different to previous years.

So in conclusion, it’s going to be a stressful period for heads, teachers and students. There are going to be a lot of problems but it isn’t clear what the alternative at this point would have been. So two things to note

1) perfectly legitimate for GW to say this was...

...the least bad option available but this system does not accord with the emphasis he placed on consistency. Unfortunately that will be impossible (alternative was more consistency but then you get into remote standardisation and potentially end up where we were last year)

2) it was certainly the least bad option now. The question is if more planning and contingency work been done from last summer (or before) would it have been then? It was foreseeable this year’s exams would be cancelled. With more forethought maybe we’d have been a better place.

BTW this all has purchase for NEXT year's exams too. This year's Y10s/12s due to take exams next year have been in exactly the same position, with much time and education lost. Are we to revert to normal exams next year? Many teachers want an adapted system thought about *now*.

(and that applies for Scotland/Wales/NI too)