GCSE pass rates | Schools Week

Educational disadvantage: how does England compare?

We know there’s work to do with the disadvantage gap in this country – but where do we stand on the international scale, asks Natalie Perera? The gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is the leading measure used by policymakers to gauge the state of educational inequality in England. Organisations such as […]

Science teachers unclear over GCSE ‘standard pass’

Science teachers need clarification on what counts as a “strong” and a “standard” pass in the combined science GCSE because they cannot predict outcomes, policy experts have claimed. Pupils taking the double-award combined science GCSE will get two numbered grades, such as a 5-4, rather than just one, when they sit their papers in 2018. […]

GCSE results 2017: Exam reform leaves 18-point gap between grades 4 and 5

Half of all grades in the reformed GCSEs were a grade 5 – a “strong pass” – or above, English results show. Fifty-three per cent of grades in English language, English literature and maths were a grade 5 or higher. Meanwhile, 71 per cent of grades were a 4 or above, a result that still […]

‘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 […]