Internet Digest Week ending: 20th August 2010
A Level Results Special
It has been a light week in the press for education, apart from the Annual focus on A Levels. This week's digest summarises the best (and worst?) of the coverage. One of the most worrying aspects of the coverage from a personal point of view is that the majority of "professional" comment came from staff working in the Independent schools. Very little voice was given to State sector Headteachers – a self-fulfilling prophecy on behalf of the papers?
Analysis of results
(ii) The Daily Telegraph – One in 12 awarded A* grade
(iii) The Independent – New A* grade for 1 in 12 students
(iv) The Guardian – A Level pass rate rises to 97.6%
(v) The BBC – A* grade boosts new exams record
(vi) The TES – Thousands of pupils exceed expectations
(vii) The Telegraph – gender gap narrowing
(viii) The Independent – subject by subject data
(ix) The Mail – no more illusions about education
Articles i – v all raise similar questions about whether the A* grade will be useful in supporting universities to sift out the most talented students. Much re-reporting of the information that many universities have decided not to use the predictions of A* grades in making conditional offers. The Mail also raise the question that Independent sector schools have had more entries receiving the "supergrade". The Mail report (i) on 1 in 13 achieving the grade whilst The Telegraph and The Independent report the 8.3% figure for A* grades against the predicted 7% from modeling done using 2009 grades. One Headteacher is quoted across several articles giving an opinion that the new grade had actually inspired the brightest pupils to work much harder than they might have done previously due to a desire to be awarded the A* rather than 'just' an A.
The Independent article (iii) also features comments from John Dunsford (ASCL) who has said that changes made to the style of question have made sure the exam is demanding and refutes any claim that there has been a dumbing down. The Independent (viii) also published a subject by subject breakdown of grades, which also gives gender comparisons.
The Guardian (iv) reports on the 28th successive annual rise in results (although this year's is rise is 0.1%). The article also reports on a study by Durham University that has shown that a student that got a C in 1988 would receive an A in today's exams (does that mean I can put "but it would be an A now" on my CV?)
The Telegraph article (vii) about the gender gap reports that girls have still outperformed boys this year, but that the gap is now at its smallest since 2001. Does that mean that the papers might start using some photos of boys receiving their grades? Not one photo appearing in the press last week featured a male candidate receiving or celebrating their grades!!
The Mail produced a comment piece (ix) which asks the public and government (previous and present) to think carefully about the A level announcements. It questions the validity of results improving year on year for such a long period of time whilst the PICA study that is quoted shows UK performance in Science, reading and mathematics slipping when compared to other nations. Being ranked 24th in the international study is a "miserable" result.
Percentage of entries achieving an A* grade
Daily Mail 1 in 13 7.6%
Daily Telegraph 1 in 12 8.3%
The Independent 1 in 12 8.3%
The Guardian 8%
The TES 8.1%
The BBC 8.3%
Subject perspectives
(ii) The Independent – Students turning to sciences, figures show
(iii) The Guardian – banned subjects list suspicion
(iv) The BBC – Psychology soaring
Within the article about Sir James Dyson's concerns about the number of students taking STEM subjects compared to media subjects there is a more general concern about the suitability of the education system (including higher education) in providing graduates with skill sets that will support the STEM industries. Dyson appears to be calling for a system which places a much greater emphasis on work related learning, including at degree level.
The Independent headline (ii) would appear to contradict the Telegraph headline (i). However, both articles report on the increased uptake in STEM subjects this year. Sir James Dyson's point is that the gap still needs to be dramatically closed if industry in the UK is to continue to be competitive and use British graduates. Twice as many students sat media related exams as STEM exams.
In the Guardian story (iii) there is a whiff of a conspiracy theory. It is reported that the Russell Group of Universities has an unpublished list of subjects which are not acceptable within the admissions process. The list, unsurprisingly in the opinion of the journalist, is biased in favour of students from private schools where the range of subjects taken is much more 'traditional'.
The BBC article (iv) provides some interesting graphics that tell the story of A Level entries and grade awards, both historically and for this year. There is a graph showing the percentage of A grades awarded within each subject, which shows that the subject with the most A grades awarded as a proportion of entries was Further Mathematics, followed by Mathematics! This makes me wonder what the level of self-selection is in each of the subjects, and how this affects the proportion of higher grades awarded?
Reforming the system
(i) The Independent – new A* grades have revived the debate about dumbing down
(ii) The Telegraph – exams face major overhaul
(iii) The Guardian – changing habits may spell the end for pencil and paper tests
The Independent article (i) is a lengthy analysis of the current A level system and its relationship with the University admissions system. The article makes the assumption that the key raison d'être of the A Level is to support Universities in offering places to the right candidates in a fair and equitable way. As the number of students taking the A level has increased dramatically, so too has the number of students passing – and this is one of the central problems in using the A Level grades as an equitable system. However, the article also points out that our stay-on rate to further and higher education is lower than many developed countries, and points out that several developed nations have seen the economic downturn as a reason for increasing higher education funding not cutting it.
The article goes on to make the following points:
· The A* grade is an improvement in the system by requiring a 90% pass for the A2 year.
· The introduction of the 'stretch and challenge type questions is a positive development as it places an emphasis on the thinking skills rather than just knowledge retention. However, it also causes a problem as the quality of the marker must be higher and the article expresses concerns that there are enough suitably qualified markers in the system.
· Predicted grades do not support an equitable admissions system. Universities should have access to raw scores so that they can see which students have scraped the grade and which have passed easily.
· To allow this to happen the exams should be taken earlier in the cycle – which the article points out is already being done in GCSE qualifications.
The Telegraph article (ii) takes the chance to report on the review of the A levels that is to take place later this year, including mentioning again the possible axing of the AS level exam. Questions are raised about the changes made to introduce the A* grade, which have not actually improved the quality of the syllabus in the opinion of one commentator. The following quote from Anastasia De Wall, head of education at think tank Civitas is an indication of the feel of the article overall "The very introduction of the A* showed there was a fundamental crisis in the system. The fact that so many people have got them shows that they are not the solution.
"The problem is re-sits, because so many people are re-sitting their AS papers, doing better every time and getting better overall results in the end."
The third article published in the Guardian (iii) has an interesting perspective on the future methodology of testing. It refers to Ofqual when saying that in the future it is likely that students will take all their exams on a computer rather than through handwritten methods. There are responses from a number of people, who point out the biggest barrier to this is the capability of software at the moment to allow certain tasks, e.g. graphing, to completed on a computer. The suggestion is that pupils entering Reception classes this September are likely to be the first generation of students to dispose of the pencil and paper.
Alternative Qualifications – IB and Diploma
(i) The Independent – Leading Independent Grammar to recommend IB
(ii) The Telegraph – we need a clearer way to assess top students
(iii) The Telegraph – Just 600 pupils take new diploma
Chelmsford County High School for Girls in Essex is going to recommend that it's students study the IB rather than the A Level. Reported in the Independent (i), the Headteacher of this school feels that the IB will be a better qualification to study as it is broader in range, and requires the students to develop analytical and thinking skills. She does note that take up is likely to be slow, as the students and parents tend to be quite conservative in their choices.
In article ii John Schmitt, Head of English at Charterhouse, reviews three different systems: A Levels, IB and Pre-U. In the article he is making the case for IB and Pre-U being much better systems for developing the talents of the brightest students. The case is made on comparing the grading systems and on syllabus content. One interesting point made about the IB and Pre-U is that they are developed and refined without Government intervention.
The first award of Advanced Diplomas is covered in The Telegraph (iii). The article is quite dismissive of the qualification, and makes much of the fact that only 600 have been awarded. There is a partial breakdown of the numbers and percentages awarded an A grade in each of the diplomas offered. In the article, the future viability of the qualification is called into question with the announcement of the scrapping of science, humanities and languages being referred to again.
Other Stories
(i) The Guardian - letters
The Guardian carry three letters in response to an article written for the G2 section. In one letter the respondent challenges the author on her demand that A Levels should be completed by examinations as these prepare people for the "real world", by making a point that in her world of work nothing is written and presented from memory alone, and is usually done with a modicum of peer review against a tight deadline. Sound familiar?
No comments:
Post a Comment