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Exam Boards Forced To Change GCSE Grade Boundaries, Why? Good Question!

Letters have been released, from Ofqual wrote to Edexcel exam board, to change GCSE grade boundaries. The letters show Ofqual forcing the exam board to change GCSE English mark boundaries, half way through the school year.

These letters show that worries about the rise in C grades, asking the exam board to act quickly to make results closer to predictions for English. The exam board were quick to reply to the public on this topic and said that the grade boundaries are ‘fair’ and that they would not be changed.

As these letters were published the CEO of Ofqual faced resignation however, has not since stepped down from the position. A head teacher and former member of Ofqual said that the CEO of Ofqual was un-defendable and had become compromised. He also said that because of his actions bringing down the amount of C grades to be awarded, that he should resign.

Ofqual are trying their best to defend themselves by saying that the content of these letters were ‘entirely proper’ and are part of their work to maintain standards and can be compared to previous years.

Students in Wales will see their grades un-affected as the education minister demanded for their papers to be re-marked.

Leighton Andrews said that Welsh pupils had been victims of an ‘injustice’ action made by Ofqual and the exam board. The Edexcel correspondence is the latest twist in the scandal as it comes closer to Stacey giving evidence to MPs.

Apparently in the letters, Ofquals director of standards, Dennis Opposs, made Edexcel aware that that pupils awarded with a C grade would mean it would be eight percentage points higher than expected. They asked the exam board to act quickly on this matter so the grades were much closer to predictions, adding that it may require them to move grade boundaries a lot more than normally required.

Edexcel replied the next day stating that the grade expectations form Ofqual are only an indicator of performance, based on Sats results aged 11. Changes in the school year and new modular exams have been mentioned in this enquiry. Edexcel finally said that ‘we believe this to be compelling evidence that our award is a fair award and we do not believe a further revision of our grade boundaries is justified’.

Edexcel also make aware to Ofqual that they cannot change the minimum mark for a C grade for one English unit up to 65 marks as it stood at 55 marks in January. Ofqual replied saying that Edexcel are obliged to change boundaries to keep in line with other exam boards whose boundaries were closer to predictions. They also say that it is up to Edexcel to decide how this is achieved.