{"id":7755,"date":"2020-08-11T19:16:15","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T19:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7755"},"modified":"2020-08-11T19:16:32","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T19:16:32","slug":"what-use-is-ofqual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2020\/08\/11\/what-use-is-ofqual\/","title":{"rendered":"What use is Ofqual?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It's exam results season so there's a lot of nonsense in the air. \u00a0Here're a couple of quotes to get the pulse rating before Thursday's A level results come out:<\/p>\n

Roger Taylor<\/a>, chairman of Ofqual<\/a>, wrote in the Sunday Telegraph<\/i>\u00a0that<\/p>\n

\"Calculations of grades by Ofqual was the fairest possible way to award marks. Basing grades only on teacher assessments \u201cwould create a perpetual unfairness between this year\u2019s grades compared to past and future generations. \u00a0It would mean such an increase in the numbers of top grades that they would no longer be credible, something that has happened in other countries dealing with the same circumstances.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Meanwhile, Melanie Sanderson<\/a>, managing editor of the Good Schools Guide<\/em>, is quoted in The<\/em> Times<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cPut your child\u2019s mental health first; don\u2019t catastrophise lower than expected results and remind your child this year\u2019s grades are not reflective of their work ethic or intellect in the same way as before; they are the output of a data lab and reflect as much what students in your child\u2019s school achieved in previous years as what they are capable of themselves. \u00a0<\/span>Don\u2019t be tempted to blame teachers for submitting low grades either \u2014 teacher-assessed predicted grades were just one piece of the jigsaw leading to the final grade. \u00a0Now is the time to dust yourselves down and work out what opportunities are available to you next.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Sanderson, using her in-depth insights into the UK's communities, advised parents to \"clear their diaries to make phone calls to schools and university admissions offices\".<\/p>\n

All very difficult, I know, but I'd have been incandescent and unforgiving to read this stuff had I been a current student and found that fairness was being sacrificed on the alter of statistical purity.<\/p>\n

It was dire in North Britain before today's\u00a0volte face<\/em> as the administration discovered that teacher grades were not as problematic as they first thought. \u00a0But much better to eat words quickly than have a long battle they could not win, especially as it sets a challenge for the English \/ Welsh systems. \u00a0Politics is never far away from any decision the Nat's make \u2013 even an embarrassing one.<\/p>\n

Had I been in charge this year (Heaven forfend, ...), I'd have awarded everybody an A and left the universities to sort it all out.<\/p>\n

And, by the way, \"catastrophise\" really is unforgivable.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It's exam results season so there's a lot of nonsense in the air. \u00a0Here're a couple of quotes to get the pulse rating before Thursday's A level results come out: Roger Taylor, chairman of Ofqual, wrote in the Sunday Telegraph\u00a0that...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}