The International Baccalaureate (IB) has issued guidance for schools over how to appeal grades this year, following concerns from teachers and students over 2020‘s grading process.

Schools can now appeal grades for individuals, subjects or the entire cohort.

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The IB guidance said that for individual grading appeals, the school should have “evidence that the May 2020 published results are not indicative of the candidate’s ability”.

What criteria will the IB look at in considering individual appeals?

The IB said the following criteria would be used in the case of individual appeals:

• Is the result within one grade of prediction?  
• Is the outcome in line with students in 2019 who received similar coursework marks and predicted grades?  
• Is the issue about the marking of the coursework and/or unfair predicted grade?  
• Is the issue a wrong upload or wrong entry of predicted grade? 

What evidence will schools need to submit for an individual IB appeal?

Schools will need to submit a range of evidence to support the appeal, including the candidate’s predicted grade and coursework grade; their subject grade and the number of candidates in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

How can schools appeal IB grades for particular subjects?

Schools can also appeal grades on the basis of subject discrepancies if they have evidence that the May 2020 results are unjustified, for example, if their 2019 performance data was not typical for the school, or if they have evidence that their cohort is stronger than previous years but results do not reflect this. 

Criteria for the case review will include:

• Is the 2019 predicted grade accuracy similar to 2018 and 2017? 
• Is the mean grade similar for May 2018 and 2017?
• Is the mean coursework mark or coursework grade lower than last year?  
• Is the mean predicted grade lower than last year?  
• Is the increase in mean grade this year equal to the increase in mean predicted grades?  
• Was the subject in question assessed as usual this year (did not use the model)?  

The evidence needed will include the number of candidates registered for a subject in 2019 to 2020, the mean predicted grade for the subject from 2018-2020 and the mean coursework component grade for the subject from 2018-2020 after moderation, as well as the mean subject grades from 2018-2020.

What if a school wants the IB to review an entire cohort?

If the school has evidence that the overall performance of the May 2020 cohort for all subject levels has been impacted by the grading model and is not in line with the school’s performance in the past, it can apply for a review of the whole cohort.

The following criteria will be used for review:

• Is the profile of diploma points (less than 23, 24-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45) similar to 2017-2019?  
• Is the mean diploma points score similar to 2017-19?  
• If the cohort size has more than doubled, are there the same number of students achieving the top three categories (ie, new students are weaker than previous selective cohort)?

Schools would need to submit a range of evidence, including the mean, minimum and maximum Diploma point scores for 2018 to 2020 as well as mean subject grades across all subjects for 2019 and 2020.

The IB said that “cases will be prioritised when there is a direct effect on a candidate’s future progression, for example, to support university admissions and dates of admissions”.