Ofqual has a “legal duty” to publish the “precise details” of the model it is using to moderate school-assessed GCSE and A-level grades, experts have stated.
Transparency in the grading process is “vital” to ensure the exam regulator’s standardisation model does not “discriminate” against any group of students, according to the Public Law Project.
The charity told Tes “it is important that Ofqual makes good on its promise”, after the regulator confirmed it will publish arrangements for moderating this year’s grades when students receive their final results.
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Joe Tomlinson, research director at the Public Law Project said: “Our analysis is that Ofqual has a legal duty to publish its model for calculating GCSE and A-level grades.
“Transparency around the model is vital to ensure that it does not discriminate against any particular group of students.
“There are legitimate concerns that the model used might negatively impact certain students, such as high achievers in historically low-performing schools, or students from low-income families but, without transparency, it would be simply impossible to know whether these concerns are valid or not.”
Dr Tomlinson said it is becoming “increasingly common” for public bodies not to disclose models relied upon in decision-making.
“There can be good reasons for such reluctance, including concerns about confidentiality or abuse and circumvention,” he said.
“However, the courts have shown great reluctance to permit these models to be kept hidden from view. They have said over and over again now that there is a strong legal presumption that models of this kind ought to be disclosed.
“The logic here is simple: people need to have basic information about how public bodies are making decisions about them so that they can understand them and, if necessary, challenge them.”
He added: “It is important that Ofqual makes good on its promise to publish the precise details of the model.”
Ofqual said it is “confident” that all decisions it has taken in relation to the standardisation model are “lawful”.
In a letter to heads of centre published today, the exams watchdog said arrangements for standardising this year’s grades must be “fully transparent” - but releasing comprehensive details now may allow schools and colleges to work out their results ahead of time.
Tes revealed earlier this month that the watchdog would not commit to publishing the model it is using to moderate school-assessed grades before final results are released this summer.
The news came the week after MPs on the Commons education select committee called on the exams regulator to publish details of its standardisation model “immediately”.
Today’s letter states: “It is important that the arrangements this year are fully transparent.
“Therefore, we will publish the precise details of the model used on results days - to do so any earlier would allow some centres to try to work out their results before they are released nationally and it is important all students get their results at the same time.”
After GCSE and A-level exams were cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak, Ofqual decided to award grades based on teacher assessment, a “rank order” of students in each school for each grade and subject, and historical school performance data.
The regulator’s “standardisation model” will be used by exam boards to ensure grading consistency.
A spokesperson for Ofqual said: “We are confident that the consultations we have conducted and the decisions we have taken in relation to the standardisation model are lawful.”
They added: “We recognise the interest in the approach to standardisation adopted this summer and the precise technical detail of the model being used.
“Last week, following our Summer Symposium event for stakeholders, we published more information about how the model operates.
“It was not appropriate to do so before this point as we had been extensively testing and refining possible variations, to ensure we selected a model which gives students the fairest results possible so they can have confidence in their grades this year.
“We were also sensitive to the fact that releasing more detail about the model, while centres were still grading and rank ordering their students, could have influenced this process.
“Although we have now considered it appropriate to provide more information about how the model operates, we continue to believe that releasing the full technical detail of the model itself prior to results day is inappropriate.
“For example, the process of standardising results is still ongoing and early publication of this information could also lead to some students unfairly finding out their results early, or cause unhelpful anxiety if they are incorrectly calculated.
“We, therefore, do not intend to publish the precise technical detail of the statistical standardisation model until A-level results have been published.”
