GCSE grades fall for the first time: were they manipulated?

[MrCynical]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19620075

Well, it looks like Gove has made his move on GCSEs. What do you think? I agree getting rid of the multiple exam boards has to be a good move - exam standards is one place you really don't want competition going on. I've never met anyone who thought multiple exam boards was actually a good idea.

He's also scrapping the modular system and going back to one set of end of year exams. This isn't actually turning back the clock that far - the modular system has been around for less than 10 years. Finally he's "reducing the number of top grades" though it's not entirely clear how he intends to do that. Removing the modular system will discourage resits which will reduce the number of top grades. With the existing resit system it's inevitable that resits will significantly inflate the grades.

Thoughts? Personally I think this is on the right lines, though I wouldn't call the new exams GCSEs just to highlight that they are not directly comparable.

 

[Truronian]

They look like fairly sensible changes to me. I'm going to withhold judgement until the fine-print is revealed; Michael Gove has some pretty terrible (IMO) opinions about education so I would be surprised (but glad) if he brought about a wholly positive change to the examinations system.

EDIT: Just listened to Gove's announcement. Not sure how getting rid of Foundation and Higher is going to work in Maths, we'll see. There were a few inaccuracies in what he said as well, he suggested that it was the modular structure that leads to teaching to the test which is not the case for example.

 

[Truronian]

You can read the reform consultation here, if you're so inclined. A lot of the maths detail is iffy.

They want to abolish tiers (Foundation and Higher) because it 'caps aspiration' which is very rarely the case. At the same time they want to introduce an addition maths course, despite claiming that everyone should be learning the same thing. Literally every objection they have to the existence of different tiers can be levelled against having this additional EBC: this particular aspect is clearly an example of reform that sounds good without actually changing a whole lot. There is a clear stigma against calculators, we'll see how they come out about this after the consultation. If someone suggests log or trig tables I will be most displeased. They also have a section on how the EBC will avoid teaching to the test, which is unlikely unless the way schools are assessed and judged is changed.

Golden irony points go to the extract below:

We estimate the current shortage of specialist English and mathematics teachers in the further education sector able to teach to GCSE level is 10% in English and 25% in mathematics.

25% of what???