Ofqual: Exam changes will lead to varied results
Major changes to exams are likely to have impacted on GCSE results this year, Ofqual has warned schools.
The qualifications watchdog has told institutions that the biggest amendments in years to the way that 16-year-olds are assessed will mean that results vary more widely than usual at the school level.
Every pupil will now be tested at the end of the full two years of their course, whereas many syllabi have taken a modular approach. Meanwhile, a number of changes to compulsory English courses have taken effect, while far fewer pupils have been entered for the qualifications in year 10 as opposed to year 11.
Early entries are now 40 per cent lower than recorded last academic year, the BBC reports, which is thought to be at least partly down to changes which said only the grade achieved on the first attempt at any exam could count towards the qualification.
“Overall, results are likely to look different because of the difference in entry patterns. Direct comparisons cannot be made because you wouldn't be comparing like for like,” said chief regulator Glenys Stacey.
"The one thing that we can all be sure of is that standards will be held steady.”
She added that schools’ results are likely to vary considerably from last year, but that each school is likely to be affected differently depending on how students have responded to the new qualifications.
AS and A-level results are also likely to be affected, she told the TES, since exams can only be taken in the summer and AS exams can no longer be resat in year 13.
What’s more, she explained that the impacts of these new assessments would be felt throughout the next few years, as schools adapt to the changes and begin to rethink their strategies for entering students for exams.
From 2017, the A*-G grading system will be replaced with a system which rates GCSE performance on a scale from nine to one. The rest of the changes announced during Michael Gove’s tenure as education secretary are due to be phased in over the next few years too, which could mean more subjects are affected in new ways.
