Education secretary Gavin Williamson must admit that there was unwanted systemic bias in the approach to A-level grading this year, the Association of Colleges has said.
The organisation said that Mr Williamson must acknowledge that this year’s system for awarding A-level results worked against colleges with large numbers of students - and favoured those with smaller numbers who have faced less adjustment.
The AoC has called for Mr Williamson to move to a system “which puts fairness to every student at its heart” and urged him to be “more generous in the results given”.
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David Hughes, AoC chief executive, said that the system had “failed thousands of young people”.
“To rectify the chaos and disappointment so many find themselves in, the education secretary needs to give students a leg-up rather than punishing them by sticking to a failing algorithm,” he added.
A-level results: Act now to save students’ futures
“In practice, it would mean allowing students to, at most, achieve one grade more than they might have achieved. There would be slightly more grade inflation than the Ofqual model produced, but not much more. There is still time to salvage this and protect the futures of thousands of young people who stand to lose out through no fault of their own. But the education secretary must act now.”
Ahead of GCSE results day this Thursday, the AoC also called for all centre-assessed grades of grade 4 for post-16 GCSE English and maths retake students to be honoured.
The Association of Colleges’ recommendations in full
The Association of Colleges says that the next steps needed now are:
- Acknowledge the systemic bias of this year’s approach to grading. Minimising grade inflation has not worked because of the unfair outcomes. Instead, the education secretary should say he has decided to move to a system which puts fairness to every student at its heart and be more generous in the results given.
- Set out nationally the intended outcomes of fairness and a simple process to achieve them. This will allow individual colleges and schools to model their grades and for Ofqual and awarding bodies to check them. This will be a quicker way to better outcomes than thousands of separate appeals.
- Work with colleges, Ofqual and the awarding organisations to undertake a short technical review of the grades awarded in every college and school where the results are unfair. The education secretary should establish a task force, with independent observers, tasked with the aim of achieving results which:
a. Give equivalent increases in higher grades for large cohorts to that experienced by small cohorts.
b. Ensure that results in every college and school are at least as good as last year.
c. Guarantee that no centre-assessed grade (CAG) will be reduced by more than one grade.
- Announce that all CAGs of grade 4 for post-16 GCSE English and maths retake students will be honoured.
- Move quickly to avoid any delay to GCSE results by working closely with the relevant organisations to agree a way forward that everyone can buy into. This might require CAGs to be used, or a modification of that, but the key is to work in partnership to achieve a consensus and put the students’ interests first - give them a break in this year of all years.
