A chara, – Full marks (and 625 CAO points!) to the State Examinations Commission (SEC) for integrity and transparency. As pointed out by Carl O’Brien in his article “Leaving Cert grades inflated to match last year’s marks” (News, August 25th), Minister for Education Norma Foley instructed the SEC to ensure that this year’s Leaving Certificate grades would be no lower on aggregate than last year. This required upward adjustment of examination marks by an average of 7.9 per cent.
However, the integrity of the examination was maintained by the SEC by ensuring that each candidate was initially given the mark that they deserved based on their performance (“achieved mark”). When the marks were returned by the examiners to the SEC, the marks were adjusted upwards in 71 per cent of grades awarded to candidates (“awarded mark”) to achieve the outcome required by the Minister.
In the coming weeks, each candidate will be able to access online their full results – both their “achieved” mark and their “awarded” mark. Online, they will be able to see every one of their examination scripts, showing the examiners’ marks for each question and how and why they “achieved” that mark. They will also see the added mark for each paper they sat. This level of transparency is very impressive and in my experience does not exist in public examination systems in other countries.
The availability of both sets of marks for each candidate could provide an alternative for the CAO to random selection – the mechanism currently used to allocate higher education places when two or more students have identical points.
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Would it be possible for the CAO to access the “achieved” mark of such candidates?
If so, this would reduce significantly the “bunching” of candidates on the same marks and would be a fairer system. – Yours, etc,
ÁINE HYLAND, MRIA
(Emeritus Professor of Education,
University College Cork),
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Exams can be evaluated according to a triangulation of three principles: validity, reliability and fairness. In the past few years, given the unprecedented constraints, the Minister for Education has rightly emphasised fairness. In so doing, however, the remaining two principles may be compromised.
The principle of exam validity asks if what has been taught has been tested, and if the stated curriculum outcomes have been measurably achieved. The shift to online teaching necessitated a reduction in the number and range of questions to be answered in a given time, since it could not be established to what extent the full range of the curriculum had been covered by all candidates.
Simply put, less was tested because less may have been learnt. The adjustment was entirely fair, even though there was a reduction in exam validity compared to all previous years.
The principle of reliability asks, fundamentally, if the exam’s administration and results can be entirely trusted. Questions were raised, early on, about the reliability of teacher grades, given a lack of adequate standardisation procedures and possible local bias. The term grade inflation was used, frequently with derogatory implications.
Currently, the term is used without apology to explain why the Minister and exam administrators have made adjustments in the interests of fairness. As a result, neither third-level institutions nor exam candidates can trust that the awarded grade was in fact the true earned grade reflecting real student performance rather than an algorithmic calculation.
It is imperative that the proper triangulation of reliability, validity and fairness are now restored, so that faith can be maintained in this high-stakes exam.
The same principles will need to apply also in future, evaluating whatever welcome reforms are made to the ways school leavers are assessed. – Yours, etc,
Dr RAYMOND SHEEHAN,
Las Palmas,
Spain.
Sir, – Does the Minister for Education have any concept of the consequences of grade inflation on the wellbeing of students who find themselves in courses which are beyond their abilities?
I am retired so I don’t ever now have to deal with the human wreckage of students who find themselves in over their head. The damage to self-esteem and financial loss involved in dropping out of third-level education is considerable. – Yours, etc,
Prof MATTHEW A HARMEY,
(Emeritus Professor of Plant Molecular Biology, UCD),
Dublin 8.
Sir, – Rather than random selection, why does the CAO not use the total of the percentages achieved by the students in their top six subjects to allocate college places when students have the same number of points? The only complexity is that the percentages would have to be reduced (multiplied by 0.56) for ordinary-level subjects.
This would seem much more fair to all concerned. – Yours, etc,
KEN DAWSON-HOWE,
Shankill,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – When I sat my Intermediate Certificate examinations at Gorey CBS in 1968, our teachers had been on strike for a number of weeks earlier that year. In view of those extenuating circumstances, I wonder if I am entitled to retrospective grade inflation? – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL CONSIDINE,
Arklow,
Co Wicklow.