Leadership

Analysis Of Degree Classifications Over Time: Changes In Graduate Attainment

Universities in England are giving too many students top degree grades, according to this report by the Office for Students (OfS). The report shows starkly that there has been significant and unexplained grade inflation since 2010-11. Even accounting for prior attainment and student demographics, it still finds significant unexplained grade inflation.

The report shows the number of graduates being awarded first and upper-second class degrees rose from 67% in 2010-11 to 78% in 2016-17.

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      string(300) "The last act of the former Education Secretary – to remove the national curriculum levels from the assessment regime – was a bit like throwing the proverbial spanner in the works and then walking out of the factory door. As with all Govian reforms, the thinking behind it was a little unclear ..."
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      string(321) "... progress towards higher levels of abstract thinking. Some secondary and primary schools have been using it to assess children’s progress in this for some time, with remarkable results in the changes in orientation for teaching and learning. Even Bloom’s Taxonomy has a lot to offer if one of ..."
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      string(369) "The last act of the former Education Secretary – to remove the national curriculum levels from the assessment regime – was a bit like throwing the proverbial spanner in the works and then walking out of the factory door. As with all Govian reforms, the thinking behind it was a little unclear. There was no consultation, no strategic context, no positive rationale."
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      string(5159) "Creative Teaching and Learning, vol 5.1 																							Tweet The last act of the former Education Secretary – to remove the national curriculum levels from the assessment regime – was a bit like throwing the proverbial spanner in the works and then walking out of the factory door.As with all Govian reforms, the thinking behind it was a little unclear. There was no consultation, no strategic context, no positive rationale. There was some mumbo jumbo about simplifying the assessment and accountability system for schools but in actual fact, it has just added confusion. Since both schools and Ofsted used these levels to track progress, it has left a vacuum, and some panic, as to what to put in its place. How different to the US curriculum and assessment reform around the Common Core Standards! There, the national movement for reform began outside of government, with research about the growing incompetence of American children to think beyond superficial levels in their schoolwork and to cope with higher education or employment, or indeed anything where more than mechanical learning was required. This was followed by a national debate about what sort of children American society needed in a new technological age. The answer? Critical, creative children with the ability to think outside of the box, to work in groups and to undertake sustained project work that could engender in-depth learning and original solutions to problems. This initial research and the proposed solutions were both a devastating critique of the sort of test-based, knowledge-based curriculum Gove has recently introduced. Unlike the DfE, the US Department of Education realised that the new strategic direction for education had to be supported by new forms of assessments and backed the development of these with hundreds of millions of dollars. Here in the UK, some ten grants have been handed out to schools to do the best they can on the very limited goal of thinking up something to replace levels. They will do their creative best – and we are featuring one such school, Hiltingdon Primary in Hampshire which has developed Learning Ladders, in our November Conference, ‘Assessment and the New Curriculum: New Ways to Measure Progress’ – but with a such limited brief, they will never begin to address some of the questions that the American review is addressing. Questions such as: how do you objectively assess the skills of critical and creative thinking, how can you assess project work that gives all students a level playing field, what is the right mix of normative and formative assessment, how can you rid the system of teaching to tests? What most schools are going to do here – in the absence of any government guidance or pedagogical context – is stick to the levels for at least one year. This is not a bad idea, but as Sue Hackman comments in her piece this issue, not a long term solution. The national curriculum is changing and the levels will no longer apply post 2015, at which point you might as well work backwards from the attainment requirements and fix your own stages. However, this must be the start of a more profound review of not just the means but the kinds of progress we want to track. We need to find ways that track understanding and misunderstanding, levels of thinking ability and forms of creativity. Many of the tools to do this already exist but need to be dusted down and re-applied. Assessment for Learning is one core methodology that could be rigorously applied to learning objectives set by the school, but also to critical and creative thinking and collaborative project work. The problem is that AfL has become almost a portmanteau concept which can mean anything to anyone. Maybe Precision Teaching, which despite its name is a more rigorous form of AfL, should be recovered from its doldrums. SOLO Taxonomy has a lot to offer in terms of assessing a student’s progress towards higher levels of abstract thinking. Some secondary and primary schools have been using it to assess children’s progress in this for some time, with remarkable results in the changes in orientation for teaching and learning. Even Bloom’s Taxonomy has a lot to offer if one of the measures of critical thinking you are going to apply is the degree of abstraction in the quality of student questioning. None of this need be at the expense of students acquiring knowledge – it should be through knowledge, its ordering and analysis, that these other skills are taught and applied. We need new tracking procedures to replace levels, but we now have the chance to invest in tools with a deeper concept of teaching and learning. In the absence of any credible philosophy of education from the government or the opposition, schools will have to do it on their own. To access articles from Creative Teaching and Learning:Please log in.To view the latest issue of Creative Teaching and Learning, please go to the Online Publications page or click here for the direct link.Alternatively, you can subscribe here. Call our sales team for the best rate: 0121 224 7599."
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Measuring progress imaginatively could start a revolution

15 Aug 2014

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Leadership

The Effects Of High-Quality Professional Development On Teachers And Students

2 Apr 2020

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Leadership

The Effects Of High-Quality Professional Development On Teachers And Students

28 Feb 2020

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Leadership Briefing issue 6.10 (70)"
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The report follows three rounds of fieldwork with case-study centres and wider stakeholder groups designed to ascertain their understanding and perceptions of the changes, and their attitudes towards them. It builds on findings from the statistical data reported on in spring 2011, and reports on early indications of the impact of the changes and the issues that have arisen.Key Findings:· The introduction of ‘stretch and challenge’ in A levels and the reduction from six to four units1 have been welcomed by the majority of stakeholders. The decrease from six to four units at A level was seen as positive in terms of ensuring greater depth and breadth of study.· The majority of centres felt that there was greater stretch and challenge in the new specifications at A2, but that this was not always equally reflected in the assessments. 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Analysis of examination data indicated that, for most of the subjects looked at in this study, proportionally fewer students continued to A2 for 2010 completion (new specification) than had continued to A2 for 2009 completion (legacy specification).· The plateauing of grades seen in the A level results in 2010 was thought to be due to a combination of factors: the challenges of the new specification and the impact of measures introduced by Ofqual for the 2010 A level series (i.e. placing an effective limit on the extent to which grades could rise or fall to ensure that the first candidates to take the new specification A levels examinations were not disadvantaged). From 2010 to 2011, the upward trend in average grades that had been seen up to 2009 was largely restored.· The A* grade at A level is perceived by both teachers and students as recognising high-attaining students. Some universities now require an A* pass for certain courses.· Although the updating of course content at GCSE is reported to have increased students’ sense of motivation and their engagement with GCSE subjects, this positive effect has been somewhat counteracted by what is perceived as the increased focus in teaching and learning on the demands of the examination.· There were some concerns about unitised assessment for GCSE, but views were mixed. Some stakeholders, including centres, thought that linear assessment promoted more in-depth and longer-lasting learning than unitised assessment, particularly in relation to the development of subject-specific skills; other centres liked to have the option of unitised assessment for students who learned better by having the opportunity to achieve along the way and to build on previous results.· The consensus from centres and awarding organisations was that there is conflict between the need to gain the ‘results’ required for school performance targets for Key Stage 4 – using re-sits and early entry to maximise pass rates (e.g. at A*–C at GCSE), which is possible with unitised qualifications – and encouraging learning, development, coherence and a greater understanding of the subject.· The overall grade distributions obtained in the new specification GCSEs in 2011 were worse than those obtained in 2010, a slight dip following steadily increasing grades since 2004. The statistical data suggest the new GCSE specifications may be proving a little more challenging for boys than girls, even taking into account attainment differences in previous years of GCSE.· There was no consensus across or within centres and subject areas about the extent to which controlled assessment was an appropriate form of assessment for particular skills and knowledge. There were concerns that, rather than promoting in-depth independent learning, controlled assessment may only test the ability to learn content and regurgitate it.· A wide range of approaches to controlled assessment is being implemented within and across centres, often depending on the subject being assessed and/or on the teacher. Awarding organisations have often interpreted Ofqual’s regulations differently, so that there is sometimes variation in guidance for"
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Leadership

Impact Of Changes To A Levels And GCSEs

11 Apr 2012

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