What the world can learn from the UK's A-level grading fiasco
1–10 of 92 posts
Re: What the world can learn from the UK's A-level grading fiasco
#2The problem was not using an algorithm, it was that they used a crap algorithm that could award students grades that were higher than those even available on the paper that they sat, and made it impossible to get a high grade if no-one fromm your college got one before.
I'd love to see the details of the algorithm itself. Surely it can't have been too difficult to put some guard rails in there to prevent it moving any grade more than say, two places (maybe even one) from the predicted grade.
Instead it seemed to have the freedom to do whatever it liked. Moving Bs to fails. Students predicted to fail getting As.
That's just incompetence on the part of whoever made that algorithm.
Re: What the world can learn from the UK's A-level grading fiasco
#3That anyone ever thought it was a good idea boggles the mind. Random lot would have been better.
Re: What the world can learn from the UK's A-level grading fiasco
#4The problem was not using an algorithm, it was that they used a crap algorithm that could award students grades that were higher than those even available on the paper that they sat, and made it impossible to get a high grade if no-one fromm your college got one before. I'd love to see the details of the algorithm itself. Surely it can't have been too difficult to put some guard rails in there to prevent it moving an…
The algorithm was the same one used for decades, and previously published. It pretty much says:
> You get your exam grade. If that isn't available, you get a grade set by averaging your peers from the same school, with the set of peers decided by a ranking set by your teacher. If that isn't available, you get a grade chosen by your raking in class selected from the distribution of your schools past performance.
There isn't really any fairer way that doesn't lead to grade inflation when there is an element of dishonesty/optimism on the part of teachers. We already suffer an element of grade inflation, which causes employers to say things like "You must achieve grade A* in Maths to apply for this job", and applicants from years ago before that grade was even introduced are automatically excluded.
Re: What the world can learn from the UK's A-level grading fiasco
#5The problem was not using an algorithm, it was that they used a crap algorithm that could award students grades that were higher than those even available on the paper that they sat, and made it impossible to get a high grade if no-one fromm your college got one before. I'd love to see the details of the algorithm itself. Surely it can't have been too difficult to put some guard rails in there to prevent it moving an…
A description of the algorithm and its shortcomings:
Re: What the world can learn from the UK's A-level grading fiasco
#6The problem was not using an algorithm, it was that they used a crap algorithm that could award students grades that were higher than those even available on the paper that they sat, and made it impossible to get a high grade if no-one fromm your college got one before. I'd love to see the details of the algorithm itself. Surely it can't have been too difficult to put some guard rails in there to prevent it moving an…
Like all algorithms it had bias built in - one of which was to inflate private school grades, making grades even worse of a measure of quality than normal.
What was particularly inexcusable though was the government response - the implications of the algorithm were available to the government weeks before the results, and the public backlash from Scotland having similar problems happened a day before.
Now you could argue that to avoid grade inflation as a while the government should have proceeded regardless, however wen the inevitable backlash occurred (predictable since July and known since the Scottish exam results earlier in the month) they turned round.
This u-turn came too late for many students to benefit yet wiped out all benefits of grade inflation prevention - literally the worst of both worlds.
Re: What the world can learn from the UK's A-level grading fiasco
#7The problem was not using an algorithm, it was that they used a crap algorithm that could award students grades that were higher than those even available on the paper that they sat, and made it impossible to get a high grade if no-one fromm your college got one before. I'd love to see the details of the algorithm itself. Surely it can't have been too difficult to put some guard rails in there to prevent it moving an…
The algorithm was the same one used for decades, and previously published. It pretty much says: > You get your exam grade. If that isn't available, you get a grade set by averaging your peers from the same school, with the set of peers decided by a ranking set by your teacher. If that isn't available, you get a grade chosen by your raking in class selected from the distribution of your schools past performance. There…
> There isn't really any fairer way that doesn't lead to grade inflation when there is an element of dishonesty/optimism on the part of teachers.
IMO it's much better just to swallow the grade inflation for a year. It will naturally reset itself next year (when exams will be sat again), and the negative effect from it are pretty minimal.
The algorithm is based on the assumption that performance of successive school years at a given school is roughly consistent, not only as an average but as a distribution. And that assumption simply doesn't hold.
Re: What the world can learn from the UK's A-level grading fiasco
#8The problem was not using an algorithm, it was that they used a crap algorithm that could award students grades that were higher than those even available on the paper that they sat, and made it impossible to get a high grade if no-one fromm your college got one before. I'd love to see the details of the algorithm itself. Surely it can't have been too difficult to put some guard rails in there to prevent it moving an…
and made it impossible to get a high grade if no-one fromm your college got one before
Well that is unlikely. If you are going to handle it algorithmically then what else would you expect. Clearly the teachers can't be relied on because now everybody is getting an A*, the grades are effectively useless as an indicator.
I was disappointed although not surprised that the government caved on this.
Re: What the world can learn from the UK's A-level grading fiasco
#9The problem was not using an algorithm, it was that they used a crap algorithm that could award students grades that were higher than those even available on the paper that they sat, and made it impossible to get a high grade if no-one fromm your college got one before. I'd love to see the details of the algorithm itself. Surely it can't have been too difficult to put some guard rails in there to prevent it moving an…
And don't forget the totally illogical situation of awarding someone a higher grade for advanced maths then they got for basic maths.
I had a passing thought of a different system - using basically the same calculation of a school's predicted grades, allocate each school a 'budget' of marks they can distribute as they see fit, based on whatever criteria they pick. Just to be clear, I don't think that's a particularly good system either, but a canny government could have deployed it to avoid much of the direct criticism.
Re: What the world can learn from the UK's A-level grading fiasco
#10The problem was not using an algorithm, it was that they used a crap algorithm that could award students grades that were higher than those even available on the paper that they sat, and made it impossible to get a high grade if no-one fromm your college got one before. I'd love to see the details of the algorithm itself. Surely it can't have been too difficult to put some guard rails in there to prevent it moving an…
The algorithm was the same one used for decades, and previously published. It pretty much says: > You get your exam grade. If that isn't available, you get a grade set by averaging your peers from the same school, with the set of peers decided by a ranking set by your teacher. If that isn't available, you get a grade chosen by your raking in class selected from the distribution of your schools past performance. There…
When did the algorithm get used in the past? I imagine it being applied to individuals when they had an accident and missed the exams, but did it get applied to entire schools?