Grades system would not have discriminated against disadvantaged schools – court

The standardisation process used to estimate Leaving Certificate grades would not have discriminated against students attending disadvantaged schools even if data about schools’ past performances was included, the High Court has been told.

Feichín McDonagh SC, for student Freddie Sherry, said the system envisaged by the authorities to estimate and award grades to students due to sit the Leaving Cert exam in 2020 was “highly sophisticated” and not comparable to models used in England and Scotland.

The standardisation process used to assess and award calculated A-Level grades in Scotland and England this year came in for much criticism, he said.

This was because many students from disadvantaged areas in the UK saw their grades disproportionately downgraded, compared to students from affluent areas or those who attended fee-paying schools.

Steps had been taken by the Irish authorities formulating the standardisation process here to ensure the process, while using historical school data, would not treat students from disadvantaged areas adversely.

In mid-August, several media articles cited fears that what happened in England and Scotland could happen here if schools’ past performances in the Leaving Cert were used to estimate grades, he said.

The articles, he said, contained incorrect information because material was available in the public domain from the department to show safeguards had been included in the Irish system to deal with the issues that occurred in the UK.

While he was “not being critical of any journalist”, the media articles about the Irish grade estimation process were “not particularly well informed”, and were “lacking in insight”, he said.

Despite the availability of information to show that safeguards were in place, there were no articles published stating what happened in the UK could not happen here, he said.

For reasons that have not been explained to Mr Sherry, the Minister, following the controversy in the UK, took a decision on August 21st not to use historical schools’ data as part of the standardisation process.

This was despite the Minister having been given information by officials, in advance of her decision, that the use of historical data would not adversely impact students attending schools in disadvantaged areas, he added.

Mr Sherry, a student at Dublin fee-paying school, Belvedere College, claims he was unfairly treated, unfairly downgraded in five Leaving Cert subjects, resulting in him missing out on his first choice of Pharmacy in TCD.

His action is the lead case of approximately 50 challenges by other Leaving Cert students over the calculated grades process.

Mr Sherry, of Newtown, Celbridge, Co Kildare, claims the Minister’s decision to remove school historical records in the calculated grades process resulted in him being unfairly downgraded by 55 points in his Leaving Cert. He was hugely disappointed when his teachers’ estimated CAO points total of 542 for him was reduced to 487 under the process.

He claims the Minister’s direction interfered in the calculated grades process overseen by an independent steering committee was unlawful.

The Minister and the State deny the claims and maintain there is no reason to believe Mr Sherry would be in an improved position if historical school data was included.

It is also denied that the Minister breached any commitments regarding the fairness and the comparability regarding the 2020 grades, and that the action is non-justiciable, and vague.

Mr Sherry was treated the same as every other student sitting the examinations, the respondents say, and that they were entitled to change to model used to estimate grades. The defendants also claim that students in Belvedere College received, on average, higher scores in 2020 compared to the 2017-19 period and there is no basis for any assertion Mr Sherry would have been treated more favourably in another category of school. The hearing continues on Friday before Mr Justice Charles Meenan.