GCSE entries among lower-attaining pupils jumped by almost a fifth after the introduction of reforms that axed a range of qualifications from counting in the performance tables, research reveals today.
An analysis published today by FFT Education Datalab found that in 2013, lower-attaining pupils entered 5.2 GCSEs on average but in 2014, after the reforms, a similar group of pupils entered 6.2 GCSEs on average.
The reforms were introduced after the Wolf review of 2011 which flagged up the enormous growth in the number of vocational programmes for pupils in KS4 between 2003 and 2009.
The report came amid concerns that schools were “gaming” the system because the qualifications were counted as equivalent to one or more GCSEs in the league tables although Wolf found some had “little or no value”.
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Researchers Simon Burgess, a professor of economics at the University of Bristol, and Dave Thomson, chief statistician at FFT, compared a group of pupils who in 2012 took three or more of the qualifications which later became ineligible and entered fewer than eight GCSE equivalents, with pupils in 2013 and 2014 who had similar characteristics - such as free school meal eligibility and prior attainment.
The researchers found 72,896 pupils in this group in 2013 with 380,154 GCSE entries in total. In 2014, after Wolf was implemented, they identified 70,856 pupils as belonging to this group who had a total of 441,871 GCSE entries.
Although entries rose, the average point score per entry for GCSEs dropped from 32.7 to 32.5, where grade G in a GCSE was worth 16 points and an A* 58 points.
They also found a drop in the number of vocational qualifications taken. In 2013, this group of pupils took 3.2 of the remaining eligible qualifications and 2.7 of the ineligible qualifications. But in 2014, this dropped to an average of three of the eligible qualifications and 1.4 of the ineligible qualifications per pupil.
“There was hardly any change in the percentage of pupils in our group of interest achieving five or more A*-C grades at GCSE including English and maths,” the researchers said.
“In short, the reforms had an effect on the types of qualifications pupils entered, with a shift from more generously scored GCSE-equivalent qualifications back to GCSEs. Pupils took more GCSEs but fewer qualifications overall.
“However, attainment in different types of qualification did not change much. Perhaps this is only to have been expected, given the method of comparable outcomes by Ofqual and awarding bodies to ensure consistency in grading from year to year.”
