Scottish Education Disgrace

So the back story here is mainly Covid-19 concerns preventing children from sitting public, graded, examinations in the esrly summer. As a result the childrens grades were assessed by teachers and subsequently adjusted by the examination board who would have marked the papers had they been sat.

125,000 assesed grades were adjusted. On analysis of the numbers it has been determined, to quote

"The Higher pass rate for pupils from the most deprived backgrounds was reduced by 15.2 percentage points from teachers' estimates, compared to 6.9 percentage points for the wealthiest pupils."

www.bbc.co.uk...

So basically,

poor kids cant do as well as rich kids,
poor kids teachers lie about in year performance, and
rich kids deserve better grades than poor kids.

Scotland is a small country with a very influential middle and upper middle class, and the deeply held bias of this lobby in my opion influenced the outcome here.

The Scottish First leader, Nicola Sturgeon, a rabid nationalist, laughably says "appeals (if you feel the result was unfair) will 'rectify' any 'injustices'". She is clearly reworking her old pleas for a second referendum on Indendance for Scotland because the SNP lost the first one.

What Sturgeon is overseeing here in education is wrong on so many, Scotland is less credible because of it. At a time when the BLM movement is ascendant lets not forget YLM2 - Young Lives Matter Too.

a reply to: Doxanoxa

It does sound unfair. But it could also be someone playing with the statistics, like ignoring the total numbers of grades allocated, and then divvying them up by an arbitrary measure, just to get a story.

Unfortunately, it doesn't go into enough detail to know what the truth is.

Its about time this outmoded reliance on exams and bits of paper was overhauled imo. All the years spent at school boil down to a 2hr stress test, which then determines your future. Wrong in so many ways

Normalizing the results based on previous years results is a necessary part of the process as otherwise there would be a high level of grade inflation.

Where it gets unfair is at individual student level as there are going be students who buck the trend and genuinely outperform.

Also absolutely nothing to do with independence.

originally posted by: PhyllidaDavenport
Its about time this outmoded reliance on exams and bits of paper was overhauled imo. All the years spent at school boil down to a 2hr stress test, which then determines your future. Wrong in so many ways

I agree with this, exams test your ability to do exams at least as much as your knowledge of the subject being examined.

a reply to: ScepticScot

Also absolutely nothing to do with independence.

Sturgeon twists everything she gets involved in into something to do with independence.

I'm no expert in this field, not by a long shot, but on the face of it it does seem quite discriminatory against those from poorer backgrounds......which lets face it is the biggest single problem this country has had for donkeys years.

Sure, people from working class backgrounds are far more disadvantaged than anyone, regardless race or creed, from a middle or upper class background and that glass ceiling is still in place in places where it really matters.

originally posted by: Freeborn
a reply to: ScepticScot

Also absolutely nothing to do with independence.

Sturgeon twists everything she gets involved in into something to do with independence.

I'm no expert in this field, not by a long shot, but on the face of it it does seem quite discriminatory against those from poorer backgrounds......which lets face it is the biggest single problem this country has had for donkeys years.

Sure, people from working class backgrounds are far more disadvantaged than anyone, regardless race or creed, from a middle or upper class background and that glass ceiling is still in place in places where it really matters.

No she doesn't.

She gives a daily briefing on coronavirus (which unlike Johnson's attempts are actually informative and rational) and somehow manages to avoid mentioning independence at a all. As she also manages on a whole host of topics.

If your total exposure to her comes from certain elements of UK media that only ever report on Scotland when it's about in independence then I can see why you might think that, but you would be completely wrong.

The adjustment is based on schools previous performance. In general schools in poorer areas perform far poorer in exams. That is the real issue.

a reply to: ScepticScot
As I see this it has nothing to with the campaign for independance.

It has everything to do with what SNP led independance will bring to the Scottish people.

The SNP are by definition focussed on one thing: Independance. As a party, and a leader, they lack the depth to cope with social issues with more than a binary outcome.

Sturgeon on behalf of the SNP has sided - and I mean sided - with the status quo of "rich right, poor wrong", which is both discriminatory and offensive.

The little Sturgeon has commented reflects the little she actually cares about the Scottish people.

originally posted by: Doxanoxa
a reply to: ScepticScot
As I see this it has nothing to with the campaign for independance.

It has everything to do with what SNP led independance will bring to the Scottish people.

The SNP are by definition focussed on one thing: Independance. As a party, and a leader, they lack the depth to cope with social issues with more than a binary outcome.

Sturgeon on behalf of the SNP has sided - and I mean sided - with the status quo of "rich right, poor wrong", which is both discriminatory and offensive.

The little Sturgeon has commented reflects the little she actually cares about the Scottish people.

SNP had been in government for 13 years and have covered a lot more than just independence.

This is so much about independence that the rest of the UK will be using a similar method...

www.channel4.com...

a reply to: Doxanoxa

Spitting teeth! Discriminatory and arbitrary decisions about what children did not deserve to be assessed on merit alone! The exam boards need to provide evidence for their methodology in deciding which teachers were disbelieved and which weren't. They also need to change the system so that school locations, post code etc type information is not made available to them.

a reply to: ScepticScot

ScepticScot - lots of deflective comments from you - do you think children from poorer areas should be arbitrarily downgraded or not?

a reply to: ScepticScot

So, to be clear:

"
In the most deprived areas of Scotland, SQA moderators reduced the proportion of students getting A-C grades in their Highers by 15 percentage points compared to teacher estimates. In the richest parts of the country, they were brought down by 7 points.

Asked about this disparity at a recent press conference, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told Channel 4 News the new moderation system was “necessary to make sure we have a credible – and that’s important for young people – system of results”.

She added: “Without that system of moderation, I would be saying that 85 per cent of young people in our most deprived areas had passed Highers this year, compared to around 65 per cent last year and in previous years.”

“Poorer young people don’t do as well as more affluent young people and that is something we are working very, very hard, from the early years right through our school system, to try to rectify.”

She said students in Scotland would be able to appeal their grades."

In which parts of Scotland do you think appeals will be most successful? A rich part or a poor part?

originally posted by: teapot
a reply to: Doxanoxa

Spitting teeth! Discriminatory and arbitrary decisions about what children did not deserve to be assessed on merit alone! The exam boards need to provide evidence for their methodology in deciding which teachers were disbelieved and which weren't. They also need to change the system so that school locations, post code etc type information is not made available to them.

a reply to: ScepticScot

ScepticScot - lots of deflective comments from you - do you think children from poorer areas should be arbitrarily downgraded or not?

Children from deprived areas where not arbitrary downgraded. The grading was normalised against the schools previous performance.

Schools in poorer areas historically do far worse ,which is the real issue.

originally posted by: Doxanoxa
a reply to: ScepticScot

So, to be clear:

"
In the most deprived areas of Scotland, SQA moderators reduced the proportion of students getting A-C grades in their Highers by 15 percentage points compared to teacher estimates. In the richest parts of the country, they were brought down by 7 points.

Asked about this disparity at a recent press conference, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told Channel 4 News the new moderation system was “necessary to make sure we have a credible – and that’s important for young people – system of results”.

She added: “Without that system of moderation, I would be saying that 85 per cent of young people in our most deprived areas had passed Highers this year, compared to around 65 per cent last year and in previous years.”

“Poorer young people don’t do as well as more affluent young people and that is something we are working very, very hard, from the early years right through our school system, to try to rectify.”

She said students in Scotland would be able to appeal their grades."

In which parts of Scotland do you think appeals will be most successful? A rich part or a poor part?

Appeals are based on individuals performance. In the rest if the UK individual students will not have the option to appeal.

a reply to: Doxanoxa


Nicola Sturgeon 'sorry' over Scottish exam results

www.bbc.co.uk...

I'll be interested in the fix.

Common sense prevails.

Can someone direct me to the outrage thread on this?

amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org... aded?amp_js_v=a3&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian .com%2Feducation%2F2020%2Faug%2F13%2Falmost-40-of-english-students-have-a-level-results-downgraded

I think it must be something to do with Brexit...