By Joshua Hopwood
The investigation of private schools for malpractice by exam boards following alleged ‘credible evidence’ for over-inflated grades, must be transparent, and have deadlines. It must reveal outcomes sooner rather than later.
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Investigations of this nature must be speedy and should not take long to provide concrete evidence of inflated top grades in private schools, if indeed credible evidence exists to support such allegations.
Top grades at private schools were on the high when exams were cancelled and replaced with teacher grades, but there are several potential explanations for that. Pupils in private schools are generally more studious than those attending state schools, and often have dedicated expensive tutors who assist them with both homework and coursework, and regular academic development.
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private school pupils are also generally encouraged to read wider outside the curriculum.
The higher fees or independent schools are also representative of the well off background of its students, and the fact these pupils most times come from highly educated and disciplined backgrounds with top intellectual regular training.
Performance of pupils in school can be different from under exam conditions, but most important is the fact that it was a different cohort of pupils taking exams this year than last year in private schools. Exam conditions pose different challenges for different types of pupils.
The fact grades for pupils dropped this year when pupils had to sit exams has been erroneously used as evidence that grades were inflated the year before.
The fact top grades for grammar schools showed very little sign of falling has strengthened the narrative of those alleging inflated grades.
One fact ignored is that while grammar school pupils all had to pass their eleven plus to gain admission there, not all private schools have strict entry requirements. In many cases, having the right cash to pay for the high fees suffices to guarantee joining a private school.
Grammar school students are almost all assumed to have a strong primary school foundation, whereas not all private school pupils necessarily hail from the same background from primary school.
An overall drop in private school top grades this year is not enough evidence to suggest inflated grades, but the stated credible evidence of inflated grades needs to be presented sooner rather than later. It is unacceptable to suggest cheating without providing the associated evidence to support it.
Some experts suggested the data may support arguments that independent schools inflated last year’s grades, others urged caution on drawing conclusions.
Rob Halfon, chair of the education select committee, asked Saxton today whether this was evidence private schools “gamed the teacher assessed system”.
“Tempting as it is to make comparisons, it was a totally different form of assessment. That said, Ofqual takes all allegations of malpractice and cheating extremely seriously,” she said.
“We require the boards to investigate any credible evidence of malpractice and cheating. I know there are ongoing investigations.”
Pressed further at the hearing into this year’s exam results, Saxton clarified that there were individual cases of malpractice being investigated at private schools.
She said while exam boards run the investigation, Ofqual is tasked with monitoring them – so she was unable to comment further.
On the more broader issue of the difference in grades between private and state schools, Saxton said: “It’s one of reasons I was incredibly glad we could reinstate exams – it proves exams are the fairest form of assessment.
“It’s similar to the unfortunate issue we see with regions. There were differences in results in independent schools and other school types that existed prior to the pandemic.
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“They were exacerbated without exams and we’ve seen the results from 2022 are closer to those that existed prior to the pandemic”.