Another day, another Ofqual consultation, this time about
the way Ofqual propose teachers should collect evidence to support the awarding
of TAGs, should they be needed, in 2022.
It would be easy to ignore this one, figuring that the important guidelines
about exams in the summer of 2022 have been published now (with detail of topics
to follow in February).
The proposals in this new consultation will affect all students in Yr 11 and Yr 13,
and their teachers, regardless of whether exams go ahead as planned or
not. For this reason, please respond.
The first thing to note is that these proposals appear to be
there as a fall-back option, in case exams have to be cancelled for future public
health reasons. They are not in place to
mitigate any unfairness caused by previous school closures, or the greater
amount of schooling missed in different parts of the country, or the disparity
in access to remote teaching and/or ICT, etc.
Could exams have taken place last summer? Yes – they could. Exam halls are usually big, well-ventilated
spaces and students are automatically socially distanced there anyway. Given the huge desire (from Ofqual, DfE, etc)
to return over the next two years to a grading system that is similar to 2019, it
seems vastly unlikely that exams will be cancelled this academic year. So whatever is included in this consultation
is extremely unlikely to be implemented.
It must, therefore, be proportionate and should not detract from what
students would otherwise be doing, or cause additional work for teachers.
Here are some of the key features that are being proposed:
b. [...] A
sensible pattern could be to plan to assess students once in each of the second
half of the autumn term, the spring term, and the first half of the summer
term.
c. When
carrying out assessments that could be used towards TAGs, centres should assess
students in ways that are as useful as possible for students expecting to take
exams next summer by creating assessment opportunities that replicate, in full
or part, exam board papers (past papers could be used, in full or part, where
appropriate). Such assessments will also help to inform teaching and learning.
e. Each
assessment should only cover subject content that students have been taught at
the time of the assessment and not include questions on topics they are yet to
study. The range of planned assessments should mean that students are prepared
to be assessed on the full range of content they will have been taught.
Ordinarily, schools would carry out mock exams with Yr 13 and Yr 11 students. In many schools/colleges
these happen in the late autumn (Nov/Dec) and in the early spring (Feb/Mar is common). It would fit well with the timetable
suggested in the guidance for these mock exams to be used as evidence for TAGs.
There are several problems with this. The proposed guidance continues:
l.
Teachers should mark the work and carry out any internal standardisation of the
marking, in line with exam board guidance where appropriate. Students should be
provided with feedback, which could include marks or comments, but teachers
must not determine a TAG unless exams are cancelled nor tell their students
what their TAG might be.
This needs more clarity.
Marks can be given to the students but not TAGs. What about mock exam grades? The students need these mock exam grades to
inform their understanding of the level they are working at. Their teachers, particularly in Yr 13, will
use the mocks to produce predicted grades for university applications. More guidance about how we can communicate
these to students without "telling them their TAG" is necessary. It would clearly be ridiculous to give mock
exams and then separate TAG-exams!
f.
Centres may wish to aim for a total assessment time that does not significantly
exceed the total exam time for the specification.
g.
Students should be told before they take the assessment that their performance
in the assessment would be used to inform their TAG if exams were cancelled to
ensure they have time to prepare. They should be told the aspects of the
content the assessment will cover, but not the specific questions.
h.
Students in the same centre cohort should be assessed using the same approach
where possible and all the assessments taken should be used to determine the
TAG (not just those in which students performed best). The centre will make the
final judgement about what is to be used and will need to document the
rationale for any instances where consistent evidence is not used for a whole
class or cohort.
The suggestion is that we have three high-stakes exams to be
taken during the academic year (one late autumn, one in spring, one in early
summer). If TAGs become necessary then
these will all count, and there is no opportunity to pick the best result for
each student from a range of data.
This means students will need to treat these more seriously
than they do normal mock exams, where often the first Yr 13 mock exam acts as a
wake-up call to focus more, etc. They
will need to revise thoroughly as they would for a final exam, because it could
end up counting as their final exam.
This means we will need to give full revision time and full exam
preparation practice for these exams as if they were the real thing (because they
might end up being just that), which will detract from teaching time and will give the students additional stress. The final piece of evidence will be collected in the summer term, but in order
for this whole process to be worth doing, exams themselves won’t be able to
take place in, erm, the summer term.
Essentially, the proposals consist of the worst aspects of
the old modular exams (the vast amounts of lost teaching time in preparing
students to take them) without the benefits (the opportunity to resit them).
The really frustrating thing with the consultation is that it
asks whether these suggested arrangements are better than those for summer
2021. What the consultation ignores is
the vast amount of additional work and worry that this will require, for
something that can only possibly be used if schools close suddenly, just before
the exams are due to take place.
The consultation closes on 13 October, so please fill it in
soon!
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/contingency-arrangements-gcse-as-a-level-project-and-aea/contingency-arrangements-gcse-as-a-level-project-and-aea
