Statistics reveal A-level answer
Published Date:
26 August 2008
I AM amazed that the 'have A-levels got easier?' debate still persists, and that education ministers still routinely claim that examination standards have not fallen. Yet again the crucial point has been missed – that the shift in the pattern of grades awarded since the mid-1980s is so huge that it cannot be accounted for by better teachers, students, schools and colleges, even if they have generally improved considerably in that time.
Between 1965 and 1984, there were three times more fails than A grades. This year, nine times more A grades were awarded than fails. If we randomly select two candidates who sat any A-level between 1965 and 1984, there is a one in 11 chance that both failed it. That figure passed one in 1,000 this year. Now the worst performing schools and colleges have better pass rates than some of the best performing institutions had in the 1980s.
In any era, some students are always brighter and work harder than others, and there are good and bad teachers and institutions. Therefore, as any social statistician knows, no more than a small portion of the gargantuan change in the distribution of grades cannot be explained by improvements in students, teachers and institutions, even if they have generally improved a lot.
Dr Andrew Dunn, Research Associate, Learner Development Unit, University of Bradford
The full article contains 232 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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Last Updated:
26 August 2008 11:39 AM
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Source:
n/a
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Location:
Leeds
