Students in England will receive centre assessment grades for this week’s GCSE results and last week’s A and AS level results
Ofqual had consulted on and implemented a standardisation process for exam results this summer, but the system has resulted in too many inconsistent and unfair outcomes for A and AS level students. Over the last few days, it has become clear that the algorithm has revealed a number of anomalies that had not been anticipated by Ofqual and which severely undermined confidence in the system.
James said “I have been in touch with school and college heads, students, and their families. It rapidly became clear the initial system put in place created too many injustices for students who received grades well below those that their teachers had assessed they would have achieved.
I expressed those experiences and concerns to ministers and I welcome this announcement that students will get teacher assessed grades. This has been a worrying time for many young people and now the right decision has been taken I hope they will be reassured. Schools can now focus on reopening safely next month rather than spending time appealing results. “
Subsequently, the Government and Ofqual have jointly agreed to revert to centre assessment grades, which are the grades which schools and colleges assessed students were most likely to have achieved, had exams gone ahead. This was deemed to be the fairest approach to avoid some students receiving grades that did not reflect their prior performance.
Students awaiting their GCSE grades on Thursday will receive their centre assessment grade from their school or college, and students who received their A or AS level results last Thursday will be reissued their centre assessment grade. If students’ calculated grades were higher than the centre assessment grade, their calculated grade will stand.
To ensure students can progress to higher education, the Government intends to remove temporary student number controls which had been introduced for the coming academic year
