Yesterday Alan Johnson said in an interview on Sunday AM that he thought there might be an argument for a new grade at A-Level called A* in order to distunguish the very best pupils.
Why create a new grade though when you could just up the standard required for A? I realise that that would mean a number of pupils would get given Bs and that would upset educationalists who think it will destroy their self-esteem, but frankly, in the working world you have to get used to that kind of thing. A boss will not care about your feelings if you don't achieve what was required.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Creating a new A* grade
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10 comments:
Having just finished my A levels it annoys me to hear people rubbishing the qualifications I have spent 2 years working for.
Whilst i accept that the A level system is not perfect, I had no choice in the system i used, i.e. the IB was not an option and is only available to a tiny minority at some private schools who can opt out.
Introducing an A* grade wont help, I agree they just need to up the mark required for the top grades.
Contrary to popular myth not all exams take the form of the often quoted "media studies".
I was pseaking to a Physics teacher recently-head of year and he said they had definitely dumbed the syllabus and the exam down.He was only 33.Sign o the times
you're both right.we can't all have grade A's
meant head of dept
With apologies to Political Teenager, I suspect that the final solution will be the creation of A** and A*** grades and so on ever after, a continuum of dumbing down as far into the future as one can see.
The alternative, admitting that the whole educational establishment got it so badly wrong from teaching methods and assessment, to discipline and ethos, is unthinkable.
I find my son's GCSE homework hard enough to cope with, the maths and science is just another language. What's annoying with this is they have different tiers of GCSEs you can sit - foundation and higher - which is what I guess they are using as a basis for the A star A levels.
Dizzy, btw, did you know you have an enemy? Just read the blogroll on this site. I think I'm the enemy too, now.
http://snowflake5.blogspot.com/
ah yes snowflake, obsessesive economics lefty who thinks the world is the greatest place under Labour. They bought their own spin.
This is a tough one to call. Yes, a lot more students are getting "A" grades, and Yes, treachers are saying that the standard is falling. But in fairness students do seem to spend a lot longer revising than I ever did.
So, how to solve this. Nothing short of a complete re-think of the exam structure, and grading system. That way we can raise the bench mark of what is required for an "A". Maybe even a completely new grading system.
Instead we see the sticking plaster solution, that seems common place with this government, a far more complete strategy needs to be endorsed. By creating a higher grade doesn't really solve the issue.
"students do seem to spend a lot longer revising than I ever did."
===========================
Have you ever considered the possibility that you might've just been lazy? :)
Whether exams are getting easier is almost irrelevant, as for me the real issue, to quote Gore Vidal, is: "It is not enough to succeed, others must fail".
If exams are structured in such a way that everyone, near as damn it, passes, students are being set up for a huge disappointment when they enter the world of work, as there not everyone will win prizes and the boss will not care whether your self esteem is effected by telling you that you are not good enough and you do not make the, erm, grade.
I agree with many commenters on here that there is a problem with grade inflation. But it would be difficult to suddenly rescale the whole thing to make grades a lot harder, especially when all university courses and jobs for school leavers depend upon your qualifications. Consider - an A-Level student passing an exam with (say) 70% in 2006 would get an A; a similarly intelligent student in 2007 might get a B. Both equally intelligent -but only the elder student with the qualification to get a job / degree course. That's not fair on the newer students, or on employers / universities (who have to weigh up As from 2006 vs Bs from 2007 etc) - a bureaucratic nightmare.
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