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Petitions against new GCSE exams attract tens of thousands of signatures

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Exams

Exams should not test a student’s memory for formulas or quotes, critics argue

Two petitions against this year’s reformed GCSEs have attracted more than 130,000 signatures.

One petition, which already has more than 71,000 signatures, has called for GCSE students to be allowed a formula sheet in their maths exams.

And the second petition, which has attracted more than 60,000 signatures, says the government should authorise open book examinations for the English Literature GCSE.

Both petitions say that GCSE students should not be expected to memorise formulas and quotes during their exams this year.

This summer will be the first time that students sit the tougher GCSEs in English and maths – which will be graded from 9 to 1, rather than A* to G.

Referring to formulas in the maths GCSE, the creator of the petition writes: “If the government can recite them back to us then of course we can use a sheet but for now it’s unfair.”

Meanwhile, the petition against closed book exams for the English GCSE says: “Exams shouldn’t be a test on the student’s memory, but how we interpret texts.”

The petition says students could be required to learn and memorise more than 250 quotes for two literature papers – which include the content of 15 poems, two plays and a novella.

It says: “On top of 20 plus exams, students are experiencing high levels of stress due to the paper being more demanding for a higher grade.

“English is a subject that all employers and universities look at, therefore if students are unable to realistically achieve high grades there will be lower employment rates.”

The Department for Education is expected to respond to the two petitions as they have both achieved more than 10,000 signatures.

If the petitions exceed 100,000 signatures, then they will be considered for debate in Parliament.

[Source:- tes]

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Education

Analysis: Independents lead the way, a north-south divide and four other things we learned from the GCSE and A Level results

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Students taking exams

The latest raft of GCSE and A Level results have been released by the Department for Education, with this year’s figures revealing several long-standing national divides.

At the same time, there have been some tweaks to the tables, especially at Key Stage 4 level. Whereas previously a school was judged by how many of its pupils achieved five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C, the government’s latest measures seek to assess how well pupils progress as well as how well they perform in exams.

Progress 8, the new metric for GCSEs, measures a pupil’s performance at KS4 against that of pupils who achieved similar results at KS2. Attainment 8 measures the average grades achieved across the same eight subjects.

While these changes make it hard to compare the figures with previous years, there are still several things we can learn from them – including where in England performs the worst, how independent…

 [Source:- telegraph]
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Education

Confusion over numerical GCSE grades sparks publicity drive

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Exam candidate

There is widespread confusion about England’s new GCSE grading system, says the exams regulator Ofqual.

Starting this summer, GCSE grades A* to G will be phased out in favour of grades numbered from nine to one.

However, around 70% of more than 400 parents and pupils surveyed by Ofqual did not understand the system.

“It is really important we explain the basics, like the fact that nine is the highest grade,” said Chief Regulator Sally Collier.

Ofqual wants to raise awareness of the numerical grading system which starts this summer, with candidates who sit new more challenging English and maths GCSEs receiving a mixture of number and letter grades.

By the summer of 2018 a mix of numbers and letters will be awarded in an additional 20 subjects, with the letter system entirely phased out by 2019.

Surprising numbers

But according to the regulator’s small survey, awareness is currently low – only 31% of secondary pupils and 30% of parents said they were clear how the new system worked.

Additional research with 50 human resources leaders revealed that less than half of them understood it, while among small businesses, this figure dropped to about a fifth, says Ofqual.

“We don’t want there to be any surprises in summer 2017. It’s really important that we spread the word that GCSE grades are changing from letters to numbers,” said Ms Collier.

“Broadly the same proportion of students will get a grade four above as would have got a grade C or above in the old system,” she explained.

Ofqual’s publicity drive includes a series of online workshops for teaching staff in schools and universities.

The regulator is promising to widen the information drive to include employers in coming months.

The Department for Education says it has been working closely with Ofqual and with exam boards to communicate the changes.

A spokesman said the new numerical grades would be a clear signal to employers, colleges and universities that students have taken the reformed, more challenging GCSEs.

“Our GCSE reforms will create gold-standard qualifications that match the best education systems in the world and allow young people to compete in an increasingly global workplace.

“We continue to work closely with the sector to ensure they understand what the changes will mean for them when they come into effect later this year,” said the spokesman.

‘Huge task’

Michael Turner, director general of the Joint Council for Qualifications which represents exam boards, said communicating the changes to students, parents educators and employers was “a huge task”.

Mr Turner said efforts to spread the word would be “stepped up” in the run-up to the 2017 summer exams.

These reforms apply primarily to schools in England, although some pupils in Wales and Northern Ireland take GCSEs offered by English based exam boards. GCSEs offered by Welsh and Northern Irish exam boards are being reformed separately.

In Scotland National 4 and 5 qualifications replaced Standard Grades in 2014.

The survey was carried out for Ofqual by DJS Research in November last year.

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Exclusive: Most parents and students don’t understand new numerical GCSE grades

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Ofqual research reveals widespread confusion surrounding new 9 to 1 grade scale that will come into effect this summer

Research from Ofqual, the exams watchdog, reveals that more than two-thirds of students and parents do not understand the 9-1 grading scale that will replace the A*-G system at GCSE.

Meanwhile, more than four-fifths (84 per cent) of human resources (HR) professionals and more than three-quarters (76 per cent) of small-business owners remain clueless about the specific question of what a new grade 1 will be worth, research shared exclusively with TES shows.

The numbered grading system – which places 9 as the top grade and 1 as the lowest – will be used for the first time in the summer after students sit exams in the reformed English, English literature and maths GCSEs.

But Ofqual’s survey of 850 people – including heads, teachers, students, parents, employers and staff from further education colleges and universities – suggests that a lot of work still needs to be done to communicate how the system will work at key stage 4.

More than a third (36 per cent) of FE colleges and training providers do not understand the grading scale, and one in 10 secondary teachers is still confused by the reforms, the data shows.

The research shows that around three-fifths of parents with children in Year 10 and Year 11 – who will sit a mixture of reformed and unreformed GCSEs – do not know that 1 is the bottom grade.

Michael Turner, director general of the Joint Council for Qualifications, said that spreading the message would be a “huge task”.

The exam boards were working with the Department for Education, Ofqual, university admissions body Ucas and online forum the Student Room to do so, he added. “This work will be stepped up as we approach the exam series.”

Ofqual chief regulator Sally Collier said she did not want there to be “any surprises” this summer, adding: “It’s really important that we spread the word that GCSE grades are changing from letters to numbers, and explain why.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “We continue to work closely with the sector to ensure they understand what the changes will mean for them when they come into effect later this year.”

[Source:- tes]

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Education

Computing GCSE ‘leaves girls and poorer students behind’

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Three pupils watch a teacher while sitting at computer screens

A revolution is under way in the teaching of computer science in schools in England – but it risks leaving girls and pupils from poorer backgrounds and ethnic minorities behind. That’s the conclusion of academics who’ve studied data about the move from ICT as a national curriculum subject to computer science.

Four years ago, amid general disquiet that ICT was teaching children little more than how Microsoft Office worked, the government took the subject off the national curriculum. The idea was that instead schools should move to offering more rigorous courses in computer science – children would learn to code rather than how to do PowerPoint.

But academics at Roehampton University, who compile an annual study of computing education, have some worrying news. First, just 28% of schools entered pupils for the GCSE in computing in 2015. At A-level, only 24% entered pupils for the qualification.

Then there’s the evidence that girls just aren’t being persuaded to take an interest – 16% of GCSE computing entrants in 2015 were female and the figure for the A-level was just 8.5% . The qualification is relatively new and more schools – and more girls, took it in 2016 – but female participation was still only 20% for the GCSE and 10% for the A-level.

It looks as though the few that did take the exams were very focused – girls got higher grades than boys in both the GCSE and the A-level.

Unsurprising

Carrie-Ann Philbin, a former computing teacher who works to engage children in coding at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, describes these figures as “disappointing but not surprising”. She points out that we are at an early stage in developing computing education and things should improve.

But she also thinks that the way computing is often sold as if its only purpose is to turn out a generation of programmers is a problem. “This only alienates teenage girls who already have a negative idea of what it is to be a ‘computer geek’.”

Girl sitting at a computer screen in a classroomImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionThe girls that do study Computing perform better than boys in the exams

It also appears that poorer children and those from ethnic minorities are less likely to be getting the computing education the government says is vital if the UK is to have the skills it needs to compete in the digital era.

Pupils on free school meals made up just 19% of GCSE entrants, when they are 27% of the population, and just 3.6% of students were black when they make up 4.7% of that age group.

But wasn’t the picture roughly similar for the old discredited ICT course? Well, no. While it is gradually being phased out, more pupils are still taking the ICT GCSE than computing, and the entrants are far more representative of the wider population. Forty-one per cent of GCSE entrants were female, and the exam had higher numbers of entries from children from low income and ethnic minority backgrounds.

Split emerging

“Computing and ICT had really quite different groups of students taking them,” says Miles Berry from Roehampton. “ICT was much closer to the average in terms of gender, low income, ethnicity and prior attainment in maths.”

His colleague Peter Kemp says diversity in the kind of children getting computing education is important. “We need to make sure that computer science becomes a subject at least as inclusive as the old ICT qualification. If the current disparities in access go unaddressed we risk wasting the opportunity to transform the tech industry into a more equal profession.”

They both worry that schools are looking at this new subject with some scepticism and deciding that there are other priorities when budgets are tight. In schools that are offering the new A-level in computing, class sizes tend to be small, raising the prospect, says the Roehampton report, that their economic viability will be questioned under new sixth form funding arrangements.

And while many teachers supported the move towards a more rigorous form of computing education, some who warned about the danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater now feel vindicated.

Difficult

Drew Buddie, an ICT teacher who also acts as an examiner for the computer science GCSE, says the new exam is just too hard for many children, and is proving very stressful for teachers too. The result, he fears, is that “whole cohorts of students are now completely switched off doing ANY computer-related GCSE.” He says the content of the new course is so different that many ICT teachers just do not have the knowledge to teach it, and he fears that computer science could become a niche subject, taught in only a few schools.

The Department for Education is looking on the bright side. “The number of girls studying computer science has nearly doubled since last year and we want to see more follow their example,” a spokesperson said.

The DfE went on to say that “mastering Stem skills would ensure our future workforce has the skills to drive the future productivity and economy of this country”.

What it doesn’t say is that computer science can be creative and fun. Perhaps those words need to be inserted into the curriculum – otherwise many pupils and teachers may decide that computing is just too hard to bother with.

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Academisation has no long-term effect on GCSE results, research suggests

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Converting struggling schools into sponsored academies may improve GCSEresults initially but appears to have no long-term effect on attainment, according to research.

The study, by the London School of Economics (LSE) in partnership with theEducation Policy Institute (EPI), found GCSE grades rose in the years before and after conversion. After that, however, GCSE performance dropped back and continued to fall over over the next three years until improvement was “back to zero” by the fourth year of being an academy.

The research, published on Wednesday, challenges the view that the government’s academies programme is a panacea for school improvement. Earlier this year the then education secretary Nicky Morgan had to abandon government ambitions to force all schools to become academies – or have plans to do so – by 2022, in the face of fierce opposition from Tory rebels.

Nevertheless the number of schools being issued with academy orders is likely to rise with increased government powers to intervene in not just inadequate schools but those described as “coasting”.

The LSE/EPI study focused on 205 secondary academies approved for academy sponsorship after the 2010 election and opened by December 2014. These were then compared to a control group of 49 sponsored academies that opened after this period.

The report first identifies a jump in results – equivalent to 1.2 GCSE grades in one subject – in the year before converting to academy status. In the year of conversion, results rise again equivalent to 1.7 grades in one subject. But after that results start to drop off.

Researchers suggest the spike in results before the school has even converted may be down to targeted focus on key stage 4 pupils about to sit their GCSEs by school leaders trying to avoid becoming an academy, or possibly trying to appeal to a successful academy chain. Another explanation might be that after years of poor performance, schools under pressure from Ofsted take action to raise standards, perhaps appointing a new headteacher or adopting new teaching policies.

“In conclusion, while we find an initial (and significant) improvement in the year prior to and after becoming a sponsored academy, we cannot attribute that trend to anything that may have been implemented by the academy sponsor,” the study says. “It may however be a result of the incentives generated by the academisation policy, which the government may well argue is a success in itself. Or, it could be that these schools were improving in any case (perhaps as a result of competition pressures or other interventions), and the fact that they became academies is not relevant. Neither can we say, yet, that the improvements are sustained over a period of longer than three years.”

The report says it is is difficult to discern how much of the drop in attainment post-conversion is due to a real decline in improvement and how much is a result of the control group improving its own results in the year before it becomes an academy. “Essentially, we find that the control group starts to behave differently as it prepares for academy conversion,” it says.

Earlier this year, analysis by the Local Government Association found 86% of local authority schools were rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, compared with 82% of academies and 79% of free schools.

[Source:- theguardian]

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Education

Top GCSE and IGCSE grades increase at private schools

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

exam success

While independent school figures appear to buck the national trend, the inclusion of IGCSEs means they are not directly comparable

Private schools have reported an increase in the number of A* grades awarded to their pupils atGCSE and IGCSE.

The Independent Schools Council, which represents nearly 1,300 schools, said the number of A*s awarded in the qualifications had risen 1.6 percentage points to 34.5 per cent of all grades in 2016.

The figures are not directly comparable with national figures for GCSE as they include IGCSE grades.

However, national figures for all schools at GCSE alone, published last month, show that just 6.5 per cent of grades were awarded at the top grade, a fall of 0.1 percentage points this year.

The ISC said the proportion of its candidates achieving five or more GCSE or IGCSE A*-C grades, including English and maths, increased 0.7 percentage points to 90.8 per cent in the 552 schools surveyed this year.

The EBacc effect

Nationally, the proportion of GCSE entries receiving A*-C grades fell by 2.1 per percentage points on last year to 66.9 per cent.

This was the biggest ever national drop since the exams were introduced more than 25 years ago. Headteachers put this down to schools entering weaker pupils for more “academic” subjectsin order to achieve higher scores on the English Baccalaureate measure.

IGCSEs are not regulated by Ofqual and were removed from league tables in 2014. This led to many schools, mainly those in the independent sector, receiving a score of zero in the measure for pupils’ achieving five A*-C GCSEs, including English and maths.

Despite protests from schools, the government has refused to budge, saying that including results for IGCSE and other alternative qualifications in national results would “undermine the rigour of our qualifications”.

A note on the ISC’s press release relating to today’s figures said: “Results from ISC schools include IGCSE as well as GCSE. ISC continues to believe there are no grounds for the separation of performance of the IGCSE from the GCSE.”

Today’s figures follow research earlier this year from the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) at Durham University, which suggested that attending an independent school in England could add the equivalent of two additional years of schooling by the age of 16.

The results also come after the TES reported that private schools were increasingly turning their backs on GCSEs because they were “uninspiring”.

‘Formative stepping stone’

Barnaby Lenon, chair of the ISC, said: “To see an increase in independent school grades across the board is excellent news and testament to all those working hard in our schools – and of course to the young men and women who sat the exams having built towards them for a number of years.

“Set against a decrease in numbers nationally and in an environment where there are efforts to halt grade inflation, this is particularly impressive.”

Julie Robinson, ISC general secretary, said: “Once again, the value of an independent education can be seen through the achievements of the students in our schools.

“GCSEs might not be the most popular of exams – and some commentators have questioned the validity of public examinations at this point in a student’s education.

“However, our schools put much emphasis on the core subjects of English, maths, sciences and languages, much-prized by universities and employers, so these exams continue to be a formative stepping stone for our pupils.”

[Source:- tes]

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Education

Ofqual forces exam board to raise C-grade boundary on maths GCSE

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Maths

Regulator argued that Edexcel grades could be more generous than those of AQA and OCR unless the boundary was changed

The exams regulator Ofqual this year forced Pearson, which runs the Edexcel exam board, to raise its grade boundary for the crucial C grade on a maths GCSE, it has emerged.

A letter from Ofqual chief executive Sally Collier, sent a fortnight ago but published for the first time today, reveals that Ms Collier told Pearson to raise the C grade boundary on its higher-tier maths paper from 32 to 33 marks.

The disclosure comes in the wake of a petition urging the exam board to lower the grade boundarieson this year’s paper, which were significantly higher than last year’s grade boundaries.

The petition had attracted 510 signatures since yesterday – but Pearson said this year’s grade boundaries had to be raised because the exam paper was more “accessible”.

The Ofqual letter reveals that Ms Collier told Pearson that unless it raised the C-grade boundary, grades in the qualification risked being out of line with those from other exam boards – meaning pupils taking the Edexcel paper may have had a better chance of passing than those taking AQA and OCR exams.

However, the letter shows, Pearson warned that raising the grade boundary was likely to “distort” results at individual schools by lowering their results this year. This was based on data from a sample of schools and colleges that had a similar cohort of pupils entering for the GCSE in both 2015 and 2016, known as “common centres”.

Exam board overruled

Ofqual overruled this concern, arguing that data from individual schools and colleges was less significant than the statistical predictions, based on pupils’ attainment at age 11, which are used to set grade boundaries under the “comparable outcomes” approach.

“We have carefully considered your argument that significant weight should be given to statistical evidence arising from ‘large stable common centres’,” Ms Collier’s letter said.

“We do not agree that greater weight should be given to this evidence than to [statistical] predictions… it has been Ofqual’s consistent position that greatest weight should be given to predictions based on key stage 2 attainment.”

The letter said that Ofqual was aware of the potential impact of raising the grade boundary on individual schools, but that this was not a “sufficient reason” not to raise the C grade boundary.

A Pearson spokesperson said: “We are confident in the rigorous processes we have in place to set grade boundaries each year, to ensure that students receive a fair result. Our subject and technical experts review the evidence and recommend where the grade boundaries should sit.

“These recommendations are then reviewed by Ofqual, alongside research and statistics from the other exam boards. We accepted the regulator’s judgement for GCSE maths, made with the additional evidence available to them.”

[Source:- tes]

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Education

GCSE results 2016: The 100 best-performing state schools

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

exam.jpg

As thousands of students across the country receive their GCSE results this week, secondary school heads will also be celebrating or commiserating how well their school reflects in terms of grades.

Official government data last year named The Blue Coat School in Liverpool as the top performing state school in the country, closely followed by Colyton Grammar School and Kendrick School in Reading.

Thomas Telford in Shropshire has ranked as the top performing non-selective comprehensive state school for a number of years. On GCSE results day this week, headmaster Kevin Satchwell announced that 98 per cent of his pupils achieving A*-C grades, despite a nationwide fall in pass grades.

GCSE results 2016: Grades fall dramatically across the board

The non-selective school came out even higher than consistently top ranking girls’ grammar, The Henrietta Barnett School, which came second in the country for provisional rankings of schools by last week’s A Level results.

While official tables based on this year’s GCSE results are not yet available, Data supplied by individual schools to The Telegraph offers an early indicator of which schools scored the best in terms of A*-C grades.

The schools are ranked by selective and comprehensive institutions; some of the results have been excluded due to incomplete data.

The top 100 for each type of school are named as follows:

[Source:- independent]

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Education

GCSE results show record decline

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

This year’s GCSE results have shown the biggest ever year-on-year decline – down to the lowest level since 2008.

The overall proportion of entries achieving A* to C has declined from 69% to 66.9%. Top A* grades have slipped from 6.6% to 6.5%.

This has been blamed on more pupils in England being required to resit English and maths.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said 17-year-olds who had successfully retaken these GCSEs now had “better prospects”.

Impact of retakes

The results of more than five million GCSE entries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been published.

This year’s combined figures show a sharp decline in the proportion of grades A* to C and smaller falls in top A* and A grades.

Exams Wimbledon

Prof Alan Smithers, director of the University of Buckingham’s Centre for Education and Employment Research, said the 2.1 percentage points decline was the biggest drop in A*-C grades since GCSEs were introduced in the late 1980s.

This has been driven by a fall in grades in England – as Northern Ireland’s results improved and results in Wales remained stable.

  • In England, the proportion of A* to C grades fell from 68.8% last year to 66.6%. Top A* grades were down from 6.6% to 6.4%.
  • In Northern Ireland the proportion of these good passes increased slightly to 79.1% and top A* grades rose to 9.3%.
  • In Wales, the level of A* to C passes remained at 66.6%, with A* grades rising slightly to 6.1%.

The fall in England has been attributed to a policy in England requiring resits in maths and English for 17-year-olds who did not make a C grade last year.

Even without these older pupils resitting exams, there has been a fall in the results of 16 year olds, with the proportion getting A* to C declining by 1.3% points.This year’s results were down for maths, English, history and geography.

And there were further falls in the numbers of pupils taking modern languages, with the British Council warning that entries for French had more than halved in the past two decades.

The National Union of Teachers said the decline in modern languages was exacerbated by the “difficulty many schools have in recruiting qualified language teachers”.

Gender gap

The gender gap has widened further – with 71.3% of entries by girls getting a C grade or above compared with 62.4% of boys.

There has been a continuing reduction in the number of pupils taking GCSEs a year early, down by about a quarter compared with last year.

League tables now only count the first time a pupil sits an exam, discouraging entries by younger pupils.

This will be the last year before the start of a major change in how GCSEs are graded in England and how school performance is measured.

A revised set of GCSE exams are going to be graded by numbers – from 9 down to 1 – rather than the current letter-based system in a process that will be phased in from next year.

There will also be a new way of assessing schools in England, to be introduced later this year, called Progress 8, which will measure how much progress pupils make in secondary schools, rather than their raw results.

Russell Hobby, leader of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “GCSE results day is a nervous time for all, as much depends on these grades.

“2016 is worse than ever in this regard as the results are so unpredictable following wave after wave of over hasty changes. Such overwhelming change introduces mistakes and makes it hard to sustain a calm focus on teaching,” said Mr Hobby.England’s School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said he was “pleased to see that there are more GCSEs being taken in the core academic subjects, those that give students a wider range of opportunities.

“And for those 17-year-olds who have struggled to achieve good grades in maths, we are seeing 4,000 more successful re-takes of those exams; delivering better prospects for every one of those young people.‎”

Kirsty Williams, Education Secretary in Wales, said: “This year’s GCSEs show another strong performance with two thirds of our learners achieving at least A*-C and an increase in the top grades.”

[Source:- BBC]

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