You almost need a new education to be able to understand what is going on in the school system these days. Trying to work out how well a child or a school is performing is nearly impossible.
First the government changed the way GCSEs are graded – instead of A, B, C grades and so on, the system has moved to numbers, with 9 being the best grade and 4 being a basic pass and so on.
This system is being phased in gradually from this year, with English and Maths using the new grading for the first year and other subjects gradually being phased in over the following two years.
Employers, colleges, universities, teachers and parents must be bamboozled by this new way of measuring exam results.
Now, school league tables are being changed as well, so instead of being measured by exam results, schools will now be measured by Attainment 8 and Progress 8. Sound complicated enough for you?
The idea is that rather than focussing on exam results, the progress of pupils in secondary schools will be measured from their starting point when they joined the school.
This does make sense in terms of measuring how well a school is teaching its pupils, but after that, it gets so complicated I am completely lost.
The gov.uk website explains the Progress 8 system as this: “A Progress 8 score will be calculated for each pupil by comparing their achievement – their Attainment 8 score – with the average Attainment 8 score of all pupils nationally who had a similar starting point (or ‘prior attainment’), calculated using assessment results from the end of primary school.”
Does that make sense to you? Maybe they should also bring out a new compulsory GCSE called The Education System.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38611850