What can we do about grade inflation?

Top universities should be invited to collaborate with the highest achieving state and independent schools to create a new A-level system.  It needs to challenge and identify the most able
Professor Chris Woodhead, speaking exclusively to tom-brown.com

Headlines about record-breaking A-level and GCSE results have made many people question the system and sparked off another round of claims about grade inflation. Pupils who have worked hard for their A grades feel deflated by the implied criticism and many university admissions officers and employers have serious concerns about a failing system.

So are exams really getting easier and, if so, what steps do education experts recommend to rescue A-levels from this controversy? The Curriculum, Evaluation and Management Centre, based in Durham University, has been conducting research into A-level grading for the last 25 years. Its findings suggest that candidates of similar intellectual ability achieve higher grades today than they would have done in the past.

“It seems that a student who gained a C grade in maths in 2008, for example, would have only achieved a D in 1996 and would have been unclassified in 1988,” says Professor Peter Tymms, director of the centre.

Hundreds with straight As

While getting an A grade is a cause for celebration for sixth formers and their families, it adds up to a big problem for universities and employers. As Peter Tymms says, “It’s now becoming very difficult for universities to select students for prestigious courses – because they can be faced with hundreds of students with straight grade As at A-level.” 

His concern is shared by many in the academic world, including Sir Richard Sykes, the recently-retired rector of Imperial College, London. “Top institutions have great difficulty separating out the best students. They have all got four or five A levels,” said Sir Richard. 

Chris Woodhead, Chief Inspector of Schools in the 1990s and now Professor of Education at the University of Buckingham and chairman of Cognita Schools, has been an outspoken critic of the current system. “The A-level was once admired across the world. A course that gives intellectually able 16- to 18-year-olds the chance to study three subjects that interest them in depth is an ideal preparation for university.

"However, an examination that fails to identify the brightest students is not fit for purpose. The A-level is such an examination and it is now time for a review,” he says. 

Indeed, some universities are already using an alternative system of selection. “For example, Cambridge University has its own admissions tests. There’s a test for admission to Law Schools and an American system called SATs (Standard Assessment Tests) is being trialled,” says Peter Tymms.

The highly-respected Imperial College will be using its own entrance exam from 2010. The exam will be taken by candidates applying for degrees in all subjects and is intended to assess general intelligence and creativity. Also, students must sit admission tests as part of the selection procedure to study medicine at Imperial.

Imperial stresses that the college still requires students to prepare for university courses by studying A-levels (or equivalents). “We are doing this not because we don't believe in A-level, but we cannot use A-levels any more as a discriminatory factor,” said Sir Richard. “This hopefully would become a national system if it was seen to be successful.”

Some experts believe that A-levels need to adapt to survive. “If we don’t act urgently, universities will continue to develop alternative methods and we will lose A-levels and the very important work going on during the pre-university years,” says Peter Tymms. “But we need to find ways to challenge the more able students and to distinguish between them – for the sake of colleges and employers.”

Find out how private schools are making the curriculum more challenging

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