Reforming A levels and using numerical grading as part of a post-Covid reset of the assessment system is “unrealistic”, headteachers are warning.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, was commenting on reports today that ministers are considering a new grading system at A level as a way of controlling grade inflation.
This follows yesterday’s A-level results, which saw a record-breaking number of top grades.
A levels 2021:
“The return to assessment via exams next year raises questions about how these will be graded,” Mr Whiteman said.
He added: “This year many students will have been able to demonstrate higher levels of attainment through shorter assessments taken throughout their course than in an exam on one particular day in June and so higher grades have been achieved overall.
“But suggestions of a move to numerical system are unrealistic. When GCSE grading changed, there were new specifications introduced and it took four years from the first teaching of those, to the point where all GCSE’s received numerical results.”
There was an “opportunity here”, he said, for government and Ofqual to review the current system’s “reliance on terminal exams and grading” by comparable outcomes.
This would “require meaningful consultation to ensure the fairest system for students”, he said.
And Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “There is a legitimate question about what grade distribution at A-level should look like next year following two years of upheaval.
“Returning to the pattern of distribution when exams last took place in 2019 would seem very harsh on next year’s cohort because they have also been deeply affected by the disruption caused by the pandemic, and will be potentially competing for jobs with students from this year and last year when grade distribution was different.
“There may therefore be an argument for a staged adjustment or recalibration next year.
“It seems unnecessarily disruptive, however, to undertake an overhaul of the grading system itself to replace it with numbered grades or some other big change.
“A reform of this nature needs both a clear rationale and a lead-in period rather than landing it suddenly on students and teachers who are expecting A-levels to be graded in the fashion with which they are familiar. It would be very unfair and confusing to move the goalposts at this stage.”
‘Tweaking the system’
Labour’s shadow education secretary said the plans were an example of “tweaking” the system.
“I think that is just tweaking the system to get the government out of a difficult story,” Kate Green told BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme.
She said: “We shouldn’t be just playing around with the grading system here, we should be thinking about the quality of teaching and learning that children are receiving.”
She added that the difference in performance between state and private schools was in part the result of ministers’ failure to outline a standardised process for assessing grades.
