The International Baccalaureate has changed its appeals process after thousands of students expressed concerns over their grades.

The change makes it potentially easier for students to receive higher grades if they appeal against their results.

Since results for the IB were released on Monday last week, many students and headteachers have expressed shock over results that were far lower than the grades young people were predicted to attain.

Following the coronavirus outbreak this year, the IB decided to cancel exams, and instead base grades for its Diploma Programme on school predicted grades, students’ coursework and historical data.

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However, many headteachers queried grades after students received marks that were far lower than they had been predicted. 

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In a message to schools, the IB has now announced that it will change the “tolerance” levels applied to appeals over coursework marks, so that students whose mark is under by just one or two marks can see their grades increase. Prior to this, the IB had said that only marks where the grade was out by at least three marks would change.

In the message, the IB said that for its appeals process, Enquiry Upon Results, it would now remove the principle of “tolerance” for small increases in marks.

“This means that if the EUR indicates a one or two marks increase in the coursework, we will recalculate an overall grade accordingly,” the IB said.

“We will continue to protect the student from small decreases in marks through the EUR process, in line with the previous policy. Therefore, if the EUR indicates a drop of one or two marks in the coursework, we will retain the original mark and overall grade.” 
 
“We are committing to a rigorous review of these cases. We cannot guarantee higher grades as a result of the review. Where the marks are deemed reasonable, grades will not go down as a result of this process. 
 
“We are going to review all EURs which have already been submitted and implement this change retrospectively and there is no need to resubmit an EUR which has already been completed.”

The message has been welcomed by headteachers concerned by students receiving lower grades this year.

David James, deputy head at Bryanston School in Dorset, said: “This concession is welcome, but hopefully is the start, rather than the end, of a process which will see schools’ and students’ concerns fairly and objectively acknowledged by the IB. 

“They should go further though: all fees for re-marks should now be suspended; there should be a full undertaking from the IB that cohort marks will be protected if there are significant discrepancies, and the algorithm that the IB employed, as well as the standardisation process, should be made public.  

“Universities should also be brought more fully into this process so that those students who have seen markedly lower final grades are able to use their schools’ predicted grades for greater context.  No IB students should see the next stage of their academic careers affected by a faulty assessment process.”

The IB has been contacted for comment.