This evening has been one of the most frustrating I’ve had in a long time. I’ve been distracted and I can feel my blood pressure rising; today was MathsConf6 and from my twitter timeline it looks like a great time was had by all that attended – that is what the events should be about. It’s fabulous that so many teachers are giving up their own time to attend events like this. They are taking time out to develop their subject knowledge and build both formal and informal professional networks.
That isn’t what is frustrating me though… I see amazing teachers taking steps to put back the professionalism into teaching that is slowly being eroded by government policy and then I see the fact that the message isn’t getting through to people at the coalface. I know it is an almost impossible task given that education is bombarded with speeches, promises and soundbites from politicians through the media before some of what they say comes to fruition through a formal ratification process in Parliament.
Part of today’s event included the three exam boards and even when told information from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, there still appears to be some confusion about some of the changes. Let me be clear: I wasn’t there so cannot confirm or deny what was said and maybe when I see tweets with incorrect information on I should learn to just ignore it … I can’t do it! You know how much I try to keep my gob shut … I just can’t do it! The below was just one of its type that inferred that the information they’d heard was as follows:
If you get this far and stop reading – THE ABOVE IS NOT THE CASE … read on!!
Before you have a go – I know that Progress 8 is supposed to get rid of a “gold standard” type grade but the fact is – whether you believe me or not – the grade 5 IS going to be a key accountability measure from 2017. (DON’T BELIEVE ME? Check out page 7 on this document). There are no two years of grace in terms of students achieving this “threshold” for us in secondary schools. The “good pass” is not going to change – it has already been set at a 5. Be under no illusions that it is anything else, also note that just because the below mentions “currently a grade C, grade when new GCSEs” etc in the same sentence it is not saying that a 5 = C.
What is happening is that the conditions of funding post 16 that require students who are on a D today to do a GCSE resit won’t apply where the student has achieved a “4” instead of a 5 for a period of 2 years. As to what happens after this time period … who knows?
This does not mean that students or parents won’t want to resit, what it means is that FE institutions will get funding for students that have a 4 whilst not requiring them to be resitting to get a 5 for a period of two years.
Let me reiterate – This relaxation of the resit requirement DOES NOT define what is a “good” pass – the government will say that they have provided their definition with their “Ofqual postcard” showing the below, but in my opinion what is defined as a “good pass” will in all honesty be driven by employers and universities when they get their head around the changes.
I’d like to think that I know my sh!t – I’ve been following all these changes to GCSEs very closely – I read everything I find, I have chased information, been a pain in the ar5e to both the DFE and Ofqual and it has turned into an obsession … I find it very frustrating that people still don’t get it.
So for clarity – it would appear that the government doesn’t seems to be able to get the right message to the right people – I’m writing a blog post that I’ll get posted tomorrow with the intention of using it to start collecting FAQs about the new GCSE and accountability, resits etc along with links to other relevant blog posts and government documents. The aim is to keep it updated as changes are announced going forward to avoid any confusion.
I hope this will be useful to other people.
1. Is there some conflating of a ‘good pass’ and a ‘good amount of good passes’ for 2017? As the results for 2017 are going to be graded by proportion to form a baseline, the amount of grade 5s by definition is going to be lower than 2016’s Cs.
2.I’m glad you don’t keep your gob shut. These are important discussions you’re driving.
Thank you, this is clearer to me than before. I follow your posts, keep them coming because they help.
Thank god someone can put what’s going to happen into sensible speak. Finally I can begin to get some kind of handle on what my students will need to achieve. Let’s hope it’s made clear to one & all soon.
Keep your blog going it’s fantastic!!!
Just wanted to say thank you for making things clear. I follow your blog slavishly and am always grateful for all the info (and resources,ideas etc) you provide. I cannot imagine how much extra time you must spend on all of this on top of your job. So in case the message does not come across often enough, we all appreciate what you do so much!
Do you think the phasing in that exam boards refer to is a gradual movement upwards of grade boundaries?
No .. I think its genuinely driven by government to drive up standards to make us move up the PISA tables. The upshot is that in 2017 I have a feeling that in order to maintain standards (ie fixing the % of 4 and above to the same level of C and above) will mean grade boundaries will be extremely low on Higher tier. Over time through familiarisation of the papers there will be an improvement in my opinion – not sure it will come through PISA results though! In which case I’m not sure what the governments next move will be. I have a horrible nagging feeling that we may have been able to achieve the same “raising standards” by telling schools that the benchmark was going to be a “B” and not changed anything to do with exams. Madness!