[dynamite-ready]

A number of reports suggest that the algorithm has (and will be, in the case of the coming GCSE results) been selectively applied too. So your academy's history will only be taken into account, once it's determined your school is of a certain size.

Which most state run schools are, of course.

This is a nightmare, really. Like, no one can directly prove the malice here, but it certainly feels like there was an aspect of malevolence in the enterprise.

[llimos]

Who would stand to gain from that and what would they stand to gain? UK education policy over the last couple of decades has been squarely set on getting as many state school students to university as possible so it would be strange for them to suddenly switch track on the sly.

I'm no fan of the UK government but I'm pretty sure this is a textbook example of Hanlon's razor

[dynamite-ready]

It would keep exclusive institutions exclusive.

Much of the UK educational system is like that. For example, I don't know how it works elsewhere, but in England, certain students will only be offered certain exam questions, in the same subject, if the teachers determine you can take them.

So immediately, you can see some aspect of these grades are based on a subjective standard. In this case, at the discretion of teachers. One could easily argue that this Covid exam fiasco is a supercharged manifestation of those very same principles.

In the above case, obviously, all students sitting the same exam, for the same subject, should see the same exam papers.

I mean, why would they not?

I suspect the obvious answer would be the cost of teaching resource. If that's the case, this then becomes a political argument, not a technical one. But the 'exam algo' debate is definitely a technical one, and it can and should be used as a lens to examine (pun) a number of questionable practices in the UK education system.

[llimos]

When I took exams in England (admittedly a decade and a half ago) there were indeed different questions based on what you had learned, but you were instructed to only answer one of them (if you answered more it didn't count), and they were all worth the exact same number of points. It's possible some schools taught two texts to let their students choose whatever was easier on the day, but I doubt this was widespread and I don't see this system as being unfair.

[crispyporkbites]

> getting as many state school students to university

They want the state students to get to universities yes, but they want the private students to get to the good universities (oxbridge).

[mytailorisrich]

It does not need to be malice.

Good independent schools (and grammar schools) have very consistent results. Often 70%+ of A/A* year after year.

If previous grades and predictions say that most pupils should get A/A* that's not surprising. That's the way it is every year, and that probably does not indicate an inflation because of this year's strange circumstances.

But for a comprehensive school where results can vary much more from pupil to pupil, and for which past data are a mixed bag, it is trickier.