Commenting on the report of the House of Commons Education
Committee, ‘Getting the grades they’ve earned’, Geoff Barton,
General Secretary of the Association of School and College
Leaders, said:
“Schools and colleges are utterly opposed to discrimination, and
have done everything possible to guard against any hint of
unconscious bias. They have gone about the task of deciding
centre-assessed grades in extraordinarily difficult circumstances
and with the utmost diligence. They know their students well and
have done their very best to ensure the grades submitted to the
exam boards are fair and accurate.
“The exam boards will now apply to these grades a process called
‘standardisation’, which takes into account factors such as the
past performance of centres, and will make adjustments
accordingly. The purpose of this exercise is to ensure the
distribution of grades awarded nationally this year is consistent
with previous years.
“However, this has raised a significant concern that students in
schools and colleges which would have performed better in exams
this year will lose out. We agree with the Education Committee
that Ofqual must be completely transparent about its
standardisation model and publish it immediately.
“Everybody in education understands the limitations of the system
that is being used this year, and we are sure that sixth forms,
colleges, and universities will all show a spirit of generosity
in determining applications. We all want to see students progress
in the normal way.”
