GCSE and A level students to receive centre assessment grades

Students in England will receive centre assessment grades for this week’s GCSE results and last week’s A and AS level results, the Government and Ofqual confirmed on August 17.

Ofqual had consulted on and implemented a standardisation process for exam results this summer, but the system has resulted in too many inconsistent and unfair outcomes for A and AS level students. Over the last few days, it has become clear that the algorithm has revealed a number of anomalies that had not been anticipated by Ofqual and which severely undermined confidence in the system.

Subsequently, the Government and Ofqual have jointly agreed to revert to centre assessment grades, which are the grades which schools and colleges assessed students were most likely to have achieved, had exams gone ahead. This was deemed to be the fairest approach to avoid some students receiving grades that did not reflect their prior performance.

Related Articles:

• What do the U-turns on exam results mean for the UK's students? (The Guardian)
• Gavin Williamson seeks to blame Ofqual for exams debacle (The Guardian)
• Statement from Roger Taylor, Chair, Ofqual (Gov.UK)