The leader of one of the country’s largest multi-academy trusts is calling for an independent inquiry into how the GCSE results process led to some students being awarded grades above the maximum possible for the exams they were entered into.
Sir Jon Coles, chief executive of the United Learning Trust and a former Department for Education senior civil servant, also questioned why Ofqual’s grading process had led to some students with U centre-assessed grades, who had stopped accessing education, getting a grade 3 or above.
Ofqual has said that it had tried to act in students’ favour wherever possible.
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The U-turn on exam grading this week meant that on results day GCSE students received whichever was higher - the centre-assessed grade (CAG) produced by their school or the moderated grade, which had resulted from Ofqual’s standardisation process.
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This means that schools have only seen the moderated grades today if they are higher than the CAGs submitted by them.
One trend that emerged on GCSE results day is students who would have sat a foundation tier maths exam, which would have allowed them to earn a maximum of a grade 5, actually receiving grades of 6 or above today.
Commenting on Twitter, Mr Coles said: “The decision to raise GCSE grades above CAGs on the basis of the model seems completely irrational.
“Today I have seen: multiple foundation tier entries graded 6-plus; a cohort where every community language entry was upgraded to 9 - some from 5 or 6; and students who had stopped working or even attending upgraded from U to 3-plus.”
He added: “Is there going to be a full, systematic and independent review to learn from what has happened? At the moment, I can’t see much evidence of lessons being learned.”
This year’s GCSE results have shown the highest pass rate and the highest proportion of top grades in England since the qualifications were reformed.
The rise in good grades follows the U-turn in which Ofqual largely abandoned its moderation model in favour of teacher-assessed grades for both GCSEs and A level.
An Ofqual spokesperson said: “Where possible, in all decisions we have taken this summer, we have chosen the approach that works in students’ favour.
“On Monday we announced that students would receive the higher of the centre-assessment grade (CAG) or the calculated grade.
“In a very small number of cases, this meant that students whose CAG was a U (ungraded) received a higher grade. It has also meant that some foundation tier students received grades that would not normally be available on foundation tier.
“In the unprecedented circumstances this summer, it is right that we do not seek to disadvantage students who were not able to sit an exam.”
