Friday 18 August 2017

Letter to Ofqual July 2017

Here is the letter sent to Ofqual in July 2017 by ALL, ISMLA, ASCL and HMC following the publication of Ofqual's position paper on Inter-subject comparability.

Downloadable from a link on this ALL London page.




A level MFL results 2017

I attended the JCQ briefing on A level results on Thursday 17th August.

Amidst the continuing concern about the decline in numbers studying A/L and GCSE Modern Languages, and the serious impact of severe grading, one positive step has emerged with the correction being applied to grading this year to take account of the impact of native speakers.

On Ofqual's page for the AS and A level results for England 2017
one of their 3 Key Points is:
3. In A level French, German and Spanish, outcomes at grades A* and A are up following an agreement with exam boards to make an adjustment to take account of native speakers in these languages.

So the percentage of candidates gaining grades A and A* has risen from 2016 to 2017 in all 3 of those languages:  French 37.3% to 39.0%; German 39.6% to 41.4% and Spanish from 34.4% to 36.9%

This adjustment is in addition to the highly technical correction made last year to redress the incorrectly low (ever since the introduction of A* grade in 2010) percentage of candidates gaining an A* grade.  The proportion of A* grades relative to the number of A and A* grades in total  is now around 26% meaning that ML candidates are being treated comparably to other "facilitating" arts subjects such as History.

Both of these adjustments have been made by Ofqual following research undertaken after joint representations by ALL (Association for Language Learning), ISMLA (Independent Schools Modern Language Association), ASCL (Association of School and College Leaders) and HMC (the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference).

All 4 organisations recently wrote a Joint Letter to Ofqual welcoming the action they proposed to take this year regarding grading at AL ML this year linked to the issue of native speakers, as they did to the action taken effective in June 2016 to address the anomalies in the proportion of A* grades in A/L ML.

They also welcomed the offer of further work to address grading issues in A level ML, but expressed their deep disappointment that Ofqual's announcement about inter-subject comparability (ISC) does not address the issue of severe grading at GCSE.

Links

Further information:
Joint Council for Qualifications: Press release and full Results: https://www.jcq.org.uk/examination-results/a-levels/2017

Department for Education: Minister of State for School Standards, Nick Gibb congratulates students on A level results day

Ofqual Guide to AS and A level results for England, 2017: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guide-to-as-and-a-level-results-for-england-2017


Evening Standard: A-level language marks improve after criticism exams were too hard for non-native speakers

The Telegraph: Number of top grades awarded in language A-levels increases amid decline in students taking French and German

TES : Foreign languages set for less ‘harsh grading’

ALL London: How do grades in languages compare with grades in other subjects?  http://www.all-london.org.uk/archive/severe_grading.htm