Centre assessed grades and rankings – rationale used for science GCSEs

Introduction

Exams have been cancelled, and students are still going to be awarded GCSE grades.

Normally, grades would be based on 6 exams being completed by students, and the number of marks they score determines where they are in the distribution (i.e. their rank order), and ultimately their grade.

The grades achieved by students are independent of teacher’s views of the students, and dependent solely on the responses they produce to the questions in the exams. How many marks they score depends on:

• How much knowledge is in their long term memory
• How much, and the quality of, revision is completed throughout Year 11, including in the last two months
• Students’ access to resources to support their exam preparation (e.g. quiet space at home, healthy food, good sleep, emotional wellbeing, support from peers)
• A bit of luck, as the exams assess a sample of the curriculum, which may or may not be the parts they were most well-prepared for

This year the exams aren’t happening. To award grades fairly, we cannot base our grades or rankings on our feelings about the students, because we are human and biased in ways we are and aren’t aware of. A quiet student who we think won’t do well, may have done fantastic revision and scored grades higher than we expected. A bright student may have been overconfident and prepared poorly and scored much lower than we expected.

Looking at last year’s cohort for example, only about a quarter of students achieved exactly the grade they were predicted at AP3. Over three quarters achieved equal to or higher than predicted.

In summary, teachers are OK, but not that good, at predicting grades! Which is generally not a huge problem. Also, teachers know some students better than others.

But that is what we are stuck with this year.

We must accept that the grades awarded will not be particularly valid, and must take pressure off individual teachers so they don’t feel personally responsible for the grades these students achieve. Students will be able to have another go in the autumn.

Therefore we have looked at this cohort’s achievement to date, and the previous cohort’s achievement throughout year 11, to come up with as valid a process as possible.

Centre assessed grades

We were asked to produce “predicted grades” before Easter.

• Y11 took Paper 1 mocks in December, and Paper 2 mocks are done in class near Easter
• About half of the classes did not complete Paper 2 mocks before school closed
• Paper 1 mocks, therefore, represent the most comprehensive GCSE assessment of students’ performance that virtually all students completed

We analysed previous cohort’s Paper 1 mock results in comparison to their final grades

• This was used to produce detailed guidance on how to come up with a prediction based on Paper 1 mock grades, along with knowledge of the students’ performance and work rate since January, including any Paper 2 mock data that we had
• This was used to initially set predicted grades
• Teachers then had the opportunity (through a shared spreadsheet) to amend, with comments, or say they agreed

This produced “predicted grades” which will ultimately become our Centre Assessed Grades (CAGs).

Ranking

Putting students in a rank order is not something we usually do. When we have large comprehensive assessments it’s easy (simply rank by score in the exams).

We do not want to get students to do any further work to generate grades or rankings, as we cannot control the conditions in which they do this work, and we know there will be huge variability in students electronic access, not to mention the physical environments in which students complete work (all of which is controlled in the classroom or in the exam hall).

We propose to carry out a similar process to that used for generating predicted grades:

1. Give teachers another chance to look at the predicted grades, with an opportunity to change any (with justification noted)
2. Sort all students (for each of the 4 courses – combined, biology, chemistry and physics) by their total score in the three Paper 1 mocks (or scale their total up if one or two papers were missed)
3. Sort by the predicted grade we have assigned
4. Use this order to rank the students in each grade
5. Re-sort by class
6. Share this with the team, giving teachers the opportunity to comment on those in their group (e.g. “should go up” “should be below student X” or “shouldn’t be close to the grade boundary” stating their evidence/justification). Teachers will just be looking at the students in their class at this point.
7. We (Head of Science and KS4 lead) will then go through this list, making the necessary adjustments to the overall ranking, based on individual teacher’s comments
8. The full spreadsheet is shared with the team again, and the process repeated. At this point, we may be happy with the ranking but we could repeat as many times as necessary (within the time available).
9. In four separate, large meetings, we go through the list grade by grade, giving teachers the opportunity to comment on the ranking of students as we go down the list. (This last point added reluctantly – conversations about this stage are ongoing!)

Are you a head of department or member of SLT? Please add your thoughts in the comments!

Daily review activities

While completing the “Science of Learning” course from the National STEM Centre on FutureLearn, one of the activities was to share ideas for daily review (one of the 10 Principles of Instruction).

Here it is:

Someone on there mentioned “challenge grids” so I followed the link, loved them, and made a template (based on one made by @ICTevangelist) which I’ve saved here:

Challenge grid template on Dropbox

Some of these links can also be found in my “Shortcuts” page: is.gd/memorybank

No, we are NOT all doomed!

Since an early age I have heard – and said myself innumerable times – that the biggest environmental problem faced by this planet is the huge and expanding human population. But it turns out the whole story I had on the topic was wrong.

How To Be An Optimist: Step 1

So I’ve been trying something, that has made it easier to remain an optimist.

It’s a deceptively simple action to take, and anyone can do it. Immediately, for free, with no effort. Well, you might need to change a couple of habits, but you’ve made bigger changes than this in your life.

On food

I still think there’s an important place for a few grazing animals. On the other hand, industrial (also known as ‘cheap’) farming of animals is just unconscionable. Still deciding how this all fits together though…

I’ve been educating myself more and more about the production of food, with the aim of making the invisible visible. I’ve never seen an abattoir, I’ve never seen a dairy cow artificially inseminated, and I’ve never seen an industrial chicken/pork/beef/lamb operation in the flesh. Yet. So I’ve been gathering info and reading, listening to and watching what others have revealed behind the scenes of food production. I’m in the process of researching global stats on food production – more to follow on that front.

Bottom line: I want to talk FOOD and discuss, debate and learn all about it.

Watch this space.

 

My educational values

1. Everyone has the right to their own ambitions
2. Nobody has the right to define anyone else’s level of ability
3. Everyone deserves dignity, respect and space to express themselves
4. A teacher’s job is to teach as effectively as they can
5. A student’s job is to learn as much as they can
6. Hard work and grit are to be celebrated
7. No one should be lazy or rude
8. Language is powerful and creates our world
9. There is only one Earth, and we all live on it. Respect it
10. Think for yourself

If I am to maintain my integrity in my work life, my actions need to match my values.

This is a first attempt at putting those values into language and I hope to refine them and most importantly to act in line with them, without worrying about who might be upset!

What is the EU?

See below for Professor Dougan’s comments on immigration, which he emailed me today.

A friend shared a video of a talk given by Professor Michael Dougan of the University of Liverpool’s Law School. As he explains, he’s spent a lifetime studying and practising EU law, and as such has been a go-to consultant for various news outlets during the buildup to the referendum.

How does the mind affect health?

It is clear that we need our lives to have a purpose, to feel that our actions form part of something bigger than ourselves.

When Julia, a passionate and committed teacher, was forced to take extended leave from work, she had to find activities to fill the gap and to provide meaning to her day to day existence. Going from such an intrinsically fulfilling and gregarious job to a quieter, slower, less social existence would have come as a severe shock. It would have been easy for Julia to slip into a cycle of anxiety and stress leading to isolation and depression.

On the UK, EU and Germany

One of the many ironies of the desire by so many in the UK to vote to leave the EU.

A common line of reasoning I have heard is that the EU is like a dictatorship run by Germany.

Putting a Contract out on Teachers

Sometimes I think about moving to London. Then I read something like this, think about the walk from my door along the Cornish coast path, and come to my senses.

Also: brilliant idea about a structure for teacher’s contracted hours that puts them in control of their flexibility.