We have today (7 December 2020) published computer code that
we developed to support GCSE, AS and A level awarding of
calculated grades in summer 2020.
Calculated grades were not finally used in GCSE, AS or A
level awarding (except in the small number of cases where
they were higher than a candidate’s centre assessment
grade). Nonetheless, publishing this code promotes
transparency, allowing others to review and evaluate this
aspect of our approach.
The code we developed and are publishing today was not the
final code used. Exam boards were responsible for
determining the final code that supported the production of
calculated grades in a way that would work with each of
their individual computer systems. The code we produced was
designed to assist exam board compliance by demonstrating
how our relevant regulatory
requirements could be implemented.
More information about the approach we took in the summer,
including an explanation of how standardisation worked, can
be found in, ‘awarding GCSE, AS
& A levels in summer 2020: interim report’.
The code we are publishing today is written in ‘R’.
‘R’ is a free software
environment and programming language that uses publicly
available online libraries. It is a flexible language and
therefore the code we created could have been written in
different ways. Our code includes comments written in
English to help those using it.
We are currently working with UCAS, the Department for
Education and Ofsted to make available the data we used in
2020 awarding and its outcomes, alongside a wider range of
data, to support further transparency. This will allow
further analysis – including consideration of the
relationship between summer 2020 results and other measures
(such as university application and attainment data and,
eventually, degree outcomes) – and further review of the
model we used. We plan to make the range of data available
to independent, accredited researchers via the Office for National
Statistics’ Secure Research Service. This data-sharing
project aims to support Ofqual and the wider system to
learn from this summer’s awarding process. We expect that
researchers will be able to apply to access this data from
early 2021.
