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The Irish Times Technical Helpdesk has received a steady stream of questions from students who are deeply disappointed with their calculated grades.
Many students are surprised to find that, based on the agreed-upon process for assessed grades, there is no mechanism to review either the initial percentage grade given by their teacher or the place in the ranking the teacher assigned them within the class.
Many of these students attended high-performing schools, including a significant number of students who attended privately run grind schools.
In the case of the Deutsche Schule de St Kilian in Dublin, the case raises some troubling questions about whether all schools have been treated fairly.
While the school expected half of its students to earn an H1 in German based on past performance, only 14 percent earned this grade under the new calculated grades process.
These claims could easily be dismissed at another school, but given its record of excellence in German, they raise questions about whether the Department of Education’s standardization process was nuanced enough to capture these trends at the individual school level.
As for many grind schools and other private schools, some also claim that estimated teacher qualifications fell between 20 and 40 percent, well above the national average of 17 percent.
The fact that the Department of Education, following a government decision, has removed “school profile” data related to the past performance of schools during the last three years from the algorithm used to determine the final grades assigned to each student, it may also have played a decisive role. role in flattening the achievement curve.
On the contrary, it may have benefited students in schools with less tradition of securing high marks for their students and thus offers of places in highly qualifying courses. We still don’t know for sure.
Of course, it may also be the case that teachers in these schools overestimated their students to a much higher degree than elsewhere and, as a result, more of their estimated grades were lowered.
This controversy also raises the broader question of the perception of school performance. Students can expect stellar results from prestigious schools, but this is not always the case.
For example, The Irish Times provides detailed data each year on numbers progressing toward college across all schools. Many of these schools have what appear to be 100% progression rates. However, we make it absolutely clear that these numbers can be inflated if students repeat or reapply for college. For statistical reasons, outside of our control, they are all included in the same class.
Many calls
(We would love to be in a position to publish the actual numbers for the Leaving Cert class progressing to college. But according to the law, the national media does not receive this information).
Thus, there may be a misperception among both parents and students that all students from prestigious schools are guaranteed to get the best courses every year. Many do not and this is accepted.
But in the current scenario, where an algorithm is perceived to determine the outcome, such acceptance is absent. This may be one of the reasons why our helpline receives so many calls from students from these backgrounds.
What seems very clear is that at this juncture, the midpoint between the release of assessed grades and the release of college offerings on Friday, there are many very anxious and disappointed students and parents.
No algorithm was going to be able to provide a result that would keep everyone happy, but the level of unhappiness among those with high expectations is very evident and parents communicate it to their public representatives and possibly legal advisers.
Higher Education Minister Simon Harris went out of his way to point out that every effort is being made to maximize the number of spots available for CAO distribution on Friday.
Whether those extra spots will be enough to ease the anger and discomfort of the students and parents involved, only time will tell.
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