Thread by @pmdfoster

Spent today at two colleges in Brighton talking to A-Level/BTec students... @RoedeanSchool
@varndean ...it was uplifting! Yes grades have been inflated, but that is a) unavoidable without public exams b) better than the blind algorithm /1 #ALevelResults

ft.com/content/0288a0…

@RoedeanSchool @varndean Why unavoidable? Because with no-one sitting exams, no-one has a 'bad day' or a 'good day'...so grades can only be awarded on the maximum potential of each student. Otherwise teachers are guessing/playing God. Each students has a 'basket of evidence' backing up their grade /2

@RoedeanSchool @varndean The result? About 45 per cent got A*/A which is crazy -- but surely better than the algorithm that discriminated (among other things) on class sizes. So (poorer) schools with bigger classes got marked down/3

@RoedeanSchool @varndean That was crippling for schools like Varndean College - a hugely mixed intake college where some students get max 45 Points in the International Bac and some work hard to get any Level 3 qualifications. It also privileged already privileged schools like Roedean /4

@RoedeanSchool @varndean That said, the bloat clearly causes problem -- unis with too many top grades, lack of differentiation and how to bring the grade boundaries 'back to earth' as we go back to (possibly truncated) exams in 2022 and full exams thereafter (please God, Pandemic willing) /5

@RoedeanSchool @varndean But everyone should cool their jets about rampant grade inflation -- there was a once-in-a-century #covid-19 pandemic on and ultimately these grades are just gateways to the next stage. The wrinkles will ironed out. /6

@RoedeanSchool @varndean As Martin Ballard, the head of history at Varndean put it: “I hope what doesn’t get lost here is that these kids have been through a double lockdown, with all that that entails. I just think they’re a very impressive set of young people.”

Ave to that. ENDS