education

Outrage after grade boundaries for new BTec qualification raised

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Students could lose out on college places next month after the UK’s largest exam board unexpectedly raised the grade boundaries for a new BTec qualification, which will result in many getting lower grades than anticipated.

Teachers have expressed outrage and thousands have signed a petition calling on Pearson, which owns the Edexcel exam board, to reverse its decision to raise the boundaries just days before students are due to pick up their results.

The qualification affected is the BTec Tech award in health and social care, engineering and enterprise, which students study alongside GCSEs. First introduced in 2017, this year’s cohort was the first to sit the new qualification.

Pearson said it was unable to confirm the number of UK students who would have their grades changed until later this year when full results are published, but one teacher said it would affect thousands of students sitting the level 2 qualification.

A letter sent out by Pearson on Friday informed students the exam board had made “necessary changes” to the grade points needed to provide “qualification outcomes that are fair and have equal value to other level 2 qualifications”.

It added that Pearson realised some pupils will have had college places offered on the basis of results based on the previously published grade boundaries, and advises them to take the letter to their college to explain the change.

Vic Goddard, principal of Passmores Academy in Essex, which was the subject of the Channel 4 documentary Educating Essex, tweeted: “This is outrageous. Knocking the legs out under staff and students. How on earth can this be fair?”

“I’m distraught and appalled,” a teacher from a school in Birmingham told the Guardian. “It’s so unfair. I don’t know how I’m going to face my students.” Had students been informed earlier in the year, they could have done a resit to try to raise their mark, she said.

Under the revised grade boundaries, the marks needed to pass the level 2 qualification went up from 69 to 72; for a merit, the requirement went up from 82 to 95; for a distinction pupils need an additional 10 marks, up from 95 to 105, while a starred distinction now requires 114 points, up from 108.

According to the petition, which was launched by health and social care teachers, students are likely to receive one grade lower than what they thought they had achieved using Pearson’s original grade calculator.

Pearson said: We can confirm that we have updated our BTec Tech award qualification grading tables in the first year of certification to ensure that the outcomes, both now and in the future, are comparable and in line with our expectations for this and other level 2 vocational qualifications and GCSEs.

“It is important that we made these changes now, to ensure that outcomes are fair and completely in line with expectations for the cohort as a whole. Even after making these changes, BTec students across the cohort have performed very well. All students can be confident that they have received a fair and accurate grade that reflects their hard work and ability.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it appeared grade boundaries had been raised because there were too many grades at the top end of the scale which could undermine the validity of the qualification.

“This means that students will receive grades that are lower than they expected to receive and this is an extremely disappointing situation. The goalposts have been moved and pupils and their teachers have every right to feel badly let down, particularly pupils who took assessments in February and could have retaken this element.”

A statement from the exams regulator Ofqual said: “It is always challenging with new specifications to know precisely how the assessments will function and how students will perform in them. It is therefore regrettable that Pearson set out definitive grading points in its specification, and we have seen that changing these has led to understandable uncertainty and frustration.

“We understand that students, schools and colleges will be concerned about how these changes may impact them. If students or teachers have questions or concerns now, or after receiving their results, they should seek support from Pearson, which is providing information and advice.”



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