exam results | Schools Week

Boys’ A-level performance set to rise this year, predicts academic

This year’s A-level results are expected to show a surge in performance among boys, despite a fall in top grades overall due to changes in the way the exams are sat. Previous trends indicate that boys could “improve their position relative to girls” this year, according to Alan Smithers from the University of Buckingham’s Centre […]

Final exam results are becoming less valid

The evidence base for exam results is becoming less valid as the system moves back to wholly end-of-course testing, says Harry Torrance There are good reasons, rooted in traditional assessment concerns for validity and reliability, to involve teachers in setting and marking national test work in their own schools (coursework, project work and so forth). […]

‘Standard’ and ‘strong’ GCSE pass rates: what is Greening talking about?

Education secretary Justine Greening announced today that a grade 4 will now be considered “a standard pass”, while grade 5 will be called a “strong pass”. So what’s this all about? Laura McInerney explains. Just when you thought the C-grade threshold problem was all but gone in education, Justine Greening decides to drag us all […]

Schools call on MPs to fight ‘grossly unfair’ Progress 8

School leaders want MPs to fight the government’s “grossly unfair and discriminatory” Progress 8 measure that will award three times more points to pupils moving between top grades than those at the bottom of the scale. But sources close to the government insist the method is designed to protect rather than punish schools with lower-attaining […]

Exam re-mark requests plummet after Ofqual reforms

The number of exam grades that were changed after being re-marked has dropped by 25 per cent this year, with fewer schools and pupils also requesting reviews following sweeping reforms by Ofqual. Figures released this morning by the exams regulator show the total number of reviews of GCSE and A-level marks decreased from 572,400 in […]

Primary school key stage 2 performance tables: 8 key progress findings

Pupils in primary schools across the country vary in their progress – under the government’s new value-added measure – in some kinds of schools than others, government data released today shows. Those in faith schools perform marginally better, with Jewish schools leading the way, than pupils in non-religious schools on average. Pupils in sponsored and […]

Prep school exaggerated 11-plus results

A prep school boasting of its impressive record of getting pupils to grammar school has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for exaggerating its 11-plus successes. St Christopher’s school in Canterbury claimed a 94 per cent pass rate for last year’s grammar school qualification exams – advertising the result on its website and […]

How worrying is the drop in Science results?

GCSE results out. Ofqual have released numbers showing the dips and rises in school numbers. It shows a quirk with science. Each year on results day Ofqual produce boring-sounding ‘variability charts’. Dull name, but important data. These charts show how many ‘centres’ (schools or colleges) dropped or increased their results compared to the previous year. […]

GCSE A*-C pass rate drops sharply

The 2016 GCSE results are out and show a sharp fall of 2.1 percentage points in the pass rate, down to 66.9 per cent for A*-C grades. The number of A* grades alone declined by 0.1 percentage points and A*-A grades fell by 0.7 to 20.5 per cent. The drop has been linked to the […]