Head teachers are warning of “volatility” in this year’s A-level results and that some lowered grades seem to be “unfair and unfathomable”.
In England, 36% of entries had a lower grade than teachers predicted and 3% were down two grades, in results for exams cancelled by the pandemic.
But the overall results, across England, Northern Ireland and Wales, show higher A* and A grades this year.
Controversy has surrounded how results have been decided.
There was “deep frustration” in schools about the confusion caused by late changes to the results system, including the use of mock grades, said Geoff Barton, leader of the ASCL head teachers’ union.
“While there has been an overall increase in top grades, we are very concerned that this disguises a great deal of volatility among the results at school and student level,” said Mr Barton.
“We have received heartbreaking feedback from school leaders about grades being pulled down in a way that they feel to be utterly unfair and unfathomable. They are extremely concerned about the detrimental impact on their students.”
The A-level results show:
- 9% of entries were A* (up from 7.8% in 2019)
- 27.9% were A* and A (up from 25.5% in 2019)
- 78.4% of entries were A*-C (up from 75.8% in 2019)
- Psychology now the second most popular subject, after maths
- girls outperform boys, except in A*s
- in England, the moderation means that 36% of results have been lowered by one grade, 3% by two grades, 2% have increased
- there will be 25,000 university courses available in clearing, including 4,500 in top Russell Group universities
The Sixth Form Colleges Association has called the system for calculating A-level grades, “flawed and unreliable” after almost all colleges said grades were lower or much lower than predicted.
A third of college principals reported results lower or “dramatically lower” than their historic exam performance.