Choice of school influenced by 2020/2021 exam policy?

[schoolnavigator]

Hi - In my line of work I am encountering parents who are influenced in their choice of school by the experience of pupils they know at those schools who sat GCSEs and A levels in 2020 and 2021 i.e. the years heavily affected by Covid.

It appears some school have a better reputation for having awarded their pupils "centre assessed grades" or "teacher assessed grades" which are deemed to be fair and reasonable, and a correct reflection of their attainment/ability. Therefore, these schools have a reputation for a fair and competent culture, and one in which the teachers know the pupils well.

On the other hand, I hear of schools which, certainly in 2020 at least, adopted grade awarding methods which are controversial. For example, I know of more than one school which calculated grades by assuming a distribution based on the average of the last three years at the school; effectively trying to emulate the Ofqual algorithm before they submitted the grades. That had shocking results, as pupils in a school where previous grades were erratic, or lower in previous years, ended up with lower grades than they truly deserved which were never reversed, as they were the result of the school's emulation of the Ofqual algorithm rather than the Ofqual algorithm itself. I couldn't believe it when I found out this had happened, predominantly in independent and grammar schools.

There is a prevailing view, beginning to become apparent, that the latter schools (assuming still under the same headship) do not value fairness to the individual pupil, but rather are more concerned with their own image for "conforming" to some notion of expectation cohort-wide, including the Head's predisposition to the relative importance of these factors.

As I say, I notice parents picking up on these indicators of a school's culture. I would be interested to know if anyone else had a view.

[PettswoodFiona]

Everyone's views and motivations will be different. I know one parent who chose an independent school on the basis she knew the centre assessed portions (in the days when a lot of GCSEs had non-exam based elements) were heavily supported (read cheated) by the teachers so the struggling student grades were propped up. Certainly no fairness in that, but the parent's attitude was that she was paying so she should get the best grades for her daughter and she genuinely thought she was doing the right thing. I think the exam authorities cottoned onto this especially pupils who performed very poorly in an exam and stellar in course-work.

I was fuming when one parent told me that her child in another school sat a paper as homework, were sent it back with feedback and suggestions then sat the same paper again as an internal 'exam that wasn't an exam' and only the second version would be part of the 'evidence' submitted. This was at a comprehensive. They truly felt that was fair and gave them the best shot given all they had been through. DD didn't get that (at a grammar), she ended up sitting a Welsh paper that was a totally different style to the exam board she had been learning, it was bizarre, it was almost like they were trying to trip them up. DD sat her GCSEs in 2021.

Where do you get the evidence that the algorithm was applied more in independent and grammar schools? I find that hard to believe going on the children I know. I know a number of children my daughter's peer year in a range of grammars, two independents and a range of comprehensives. Regardless of what exam year or method of assessment it is I do hear more independent school parents feel aggrieved if their DCs don't get top grades as they feel like they've paid for something they don't get, I think that is the main difference.

However much we dislike exams they are far harder to cheat at or manipulate, but not impossible, I am sure I've read stories of papers being leaked the night or week before etc.

When I went to university I genuinely didn't know private schools existed. Then I met a load of young people, many of whom had been through the independent system and couldn't cope as they'd been spoon fed too much. I think it has changed as the opportunity to intentionally or unintentionally 'help' in assessments at GCSE and A Level have changed and my nephew's experience (a poll of one!) a generation later seems to corroborate that they are more on a level field now, apart from maybe he has excellent cooking and ironing skills, that some others lack

[ToadMum]

I think that this was 'guidance' from, iirc, the ASCL, on how to 'pre treat' the school's genuine results so that they wouldn't be made worse by the algorithm? Which then all went <anatomical attribute not pointing in a downward direction> when the directions changed to the awarding of CAGs, rather than the centrally-adjusted grades and those schools were left with 'algorithmed' (albeit a DIY version) grades anyway. There were demands drom some that they should be allowed to resubmit CAGs, but unfortunately, what had been submitted in the first place had had to be signed off as true and correct according to what they had been asked to do officially.