Unintended consequences.
Oct. 7th, 2013 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
woolymonkeyAnother episode in the tragicomedy of Mr. Gove...
Squirrel has brought home a letter from Monkey Federation Academies TM. That Maths GCSE he was going to take next month so he could get it over with and concentrate on Additional Maths? Cancelled. Thanks to Gove's campaign to raise standards, 60 kids at MFA will now be learning less Maths rather than more.
Mr. Gove has ruled that only the first sitting of any subject GCSE can be counted towards a school's league table place. So the school has decided not to risk early exams at all. Better to wait until June, when they'll have had more Maths lessons, and bugger the Additional Maths since it's not a GCSE and doesn't get counted towards anything (apart from being massively helpful for Maths A Level next year).
Thing is, kids can sit GCSE as many times as they like and still keep the best result - it's just the school that has to stick with the first grade awarded. The conflict of interests is as obvious as it is unhelpful. The school has made it clear they are pissed off but all they have to suggest is 'Write to your MP'. Maths geek kids are talking about protests and lesson boycotts. Maths geek parents have yet to react. Personally, I'm planning to sigh a lot and have a hot bath.
Dear Mr. Gove,
Did you ever think that maybe the reason schools want multiple shots at the 'same' exam is because the marking and grading have become so erratic? Might it help to make the system more predictable rather than less? Maybe? Or that it might be helpful to consult on new ideas for a minimum of 5 minutes before implementing them? No, of course not. Why would you?
Yours
PissedOffMonkeyMum
Squirrel has brought home a letter from Monkey Federation Academies TM. That Maths GCSE he was going to take next month so he could get it over with and concentrate on Additional Maths? Cancelled. Thanks to Gove's campaign to raise standards, 60 kids at MFA will now be learning less Maths rather than more.
Mr. Gove has ruled that only the first sitting of any subject GCSE can be counted towards a school's league table place. So the school has decided not to risk early exams at all. Better to wait until June, when they'll have had more Maths lessons, and bugger the Additional Maths since it's not a GCSE and doesn't get counted towards anything (apart from being massively helpful for Maths A Level next year).
Thing is, kids can sit GCSE as many times as they like and still keep the best result - it's just the school that has to stick with the first grade awarded. The conflict of interests is as obvious as it is unhelpful. The school has made it clear they are pissed off but all they have to suggest is 'Write to your MP'. Maths geek kids are talking about protests and lesson boycotts. Maths geek parents have yet to react. Personally, I'm planning to sigh a lot and have a hot bath.
Dear Mr. Gove,
Did you ever think that maybe the reason schools want multiple shots at the 'same' exam is because the marking and grading have become so erratic? Might it help to make the system more predictable rather than less? Maybe? Or that it might be helpful to consult on new ideas for a minimum of 5 minutes before implementing them? No, of course not. Why would you?
Yours
PissedOffMonkeyMum
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no subject
Date: 2013-10-11 01:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-14 11:26 am (UTC)Gove doesn't think kids need teaching anyway - it's all down to genetics. Head-desk.
Ironically I'm not that keen on early GCSEs. Schools have often pushed them as a way of getting multiple gos to help their league tables, rather than because it's good for the kids (who are already ridiculously over-examined). I worry that taking exams early encourages students drop a subject just because they've got a high grade - even though they haven't yet matured enough to reached their full potential and knowledge in the subject.
Agree about unpredictable exam marking though - we have examples that would make your hair stand on end. And now that scripts are assigned randomly to online examiners (rather than one marker doing an entire cohort), it's much more difficult to trace the problem and appeal it.