Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Gordon EF]

It's been long enough since I was at school for me to have next to no idea how much coursework or continuous assessment count towards final grades these days but I certainly wouldn't be against them being given far more weight than they were when I was at school.

I'd have thought that when there's a general inflation of grades, any gap between rich and poor will close. Due there being nowhere for kids who're already getting As to go. Is there a possibility that coursework and non-standardised testing just sees generally inflated grades?

[madwullie]

1 minute ago, Gordon EF said:

It's been long enough since I was at school for me to have next to no idea how much coursework or continuous assessment count towards final grades these days but I certainly wouldn't be against them being given far more weight than they were when I was at school.

I'd have thought that when there's a general inflation of grades, any gap between rich and poor will close. Due there being nowhere for kids who're already getting As to go. Is there a possibility that coursework and non-standardised testing just sees generally inflated grades?

I'm English anyway there is decent weighting of continuous assessment. Again though, it's about trusting teachers and teachers being trustworthy. 

[Gordon EF]

1 minute ago, madwullie said:

I'm English anyway there is decent weighting of continuous assessment. Again though, it's about trusting teachers and teachers being trustworthy. 

I do remember English being pretty heavy on continuous assessment. It was my worst subject at higher and I had a tutor for a while. He didn't write my literature review thing (can't remember what we called it) but he certainly talked so much about it that I'd note down everything he said and added it all into my essay. It was miles above any of my previous coursework and I got an A for it. It would have been obvious it wasn't in keeping with the rest of my work but I've no idea what anybody could have done to stop it.

[Monkey Tennis]

1 minute ago, Gordon EF said:

I do remember English being pretty heavy on continuous assessment. It was my worst subject at higher and I had a tutor for a while. He didn't write my literature review thing (can't remember what we called it) but he certainly talked so much about it that I'd note down everything he said and added it all into my essay. It was miles above any of my previous coursework and I got an A for it. It would have been obvious it wasn't in keeping with the rest of my work but I've no idea what anybody could have done to stop it.

 

It sounds like you're referring to the old RPR.  It's long gone, but a folio of writing still constitutes 30%. 

The intervention of a tutor (or even just of educated parents) needn't be as blatant as to mean that what emerges is no longer the work of the candidate.  It's very possible, however, for outside influence to be brought very directly to bear in such work, in a way it can't be in an exam.  

[madwullie]

11 minutes ago, Gordon EF said:

I do remember English being pretty heavy on continuous assessment. It was my worst subject at higher and I had a tutor for a while. He didn't write my literature review thing (can't remember what we called it) but he certainly talked so much about it that I'd note down everything he said and added it all into my essay. It was miles above any of my previous coursework and I got an A for it. It would have been obvious it wasn't in keeping with the rest of my work but I've no idea what anybody could have done to stop it.

I mean, there's nothing to stop you doing research when the rpr was about. A copy of spark notes and fire it all in your own words. But again the kind of thing a kid who gets their wee sister to school because their mum and dad are too hungover first thing to bother probably wouldn't have those kind of resources available, or even know they were available. 

Edited August 6, 2020 by madwullie

[Mark Connolly]

1 hour ago, doulikefish said:

2nd Aberdeen player tests positve....fuel up the nukes 

Ann Budge is already lobbying for Hearts to take their place

[Michael W]

1 hour ago, doulikefish said:

2nd Aberdeen player tests positve....fuel up the nukes 

Looksike they're going to be unable to fulfill their fixtures. Points deduction imminent. 

[HeWhoWalksBehindTheRows]

2 hours ago, ICTChris said:

Saw this shared from 

Grasses get slashes.

[Billy Jean King]

I'm intrigued by this.
How do you know what the school submitted?  What are you seeing on your son's certificate? 

The certificate appears to show the submitted grade and the actual grade awarded. It's a 3 page thing now with every qualification listed from N5 onwards. That's how he explained it to me I have to say I never read all the small print as I was just delighted and relieved at his results.

[Todd_is_God]

Video on twitter showing one of the Nightingale Hospitals being dismantled.

Surprised by this. Surely it would be needed when the big bad second wave comes in a few months?

[vikingTON]

6 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

Eight Aberdeen players positive

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/Record_Sport/status/1291461228506877954

Incorrect. 

[welshbairn]

20 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

Eight Aberdeen players unavailable

Maybe you should set your sights a bit lower, Cove Rangers?

[Monkey Tennis]

37 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

2 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

I'm intrigued by this.
How do you know what the school submitted?  What are you seeing on your son's certificate? 

The certificate appears to show the submitted grade and the actual grade awarded. It's a 3 page thing now with every qualification listed from N5 onwards. That's how he explained it to me I have to say I never read all the small print as I was just delighted and relieved at his results.

Congrats to your son - I was similarly relieved and delighted by my daughter's results.  

I think it's a misread of the certificate though.  One sheet shows the cumulative picture up to now and another shows pretty meaningless evidence of Core Skills and Credit Points.

The relevant one for this year simply shows the same result twice, with one listed as External Assessment alongside Credit Points.  It really has nothing to do with estimates.  

Unless his teachers told him what the estimates were (which certainly shouldn't have happened ahead of Tuesday) he can't know what was put in.  He might have a decent idea what they might be, but he's unlikely to know for sure whether anything was marked up or down.  

I think confusion over this, among some of those who've been disappointed by the outcome, has probably played a role in some of the outcry too.

Edited August 6, 2020 by Monkey Tennis

[Gaz]

The certificates don't show the estimated grade.

[Billy Jean King]

This is a good point and the previous cheerleading over how great a job Sturgeon has done compared to England's handling on this point is falling apart. We might have a better-equipped manual contact-tracing system than south of the border but there's no good reason why it shouldn't be supplemented with a working app after nearly six months of this nonsense in 2020. Pubs and restaurants (but few other businesses) taking names and phone numbers at the door is a piss-poor alternative. 

Like the app in England....oh wait they just announced today they hope to start public trials on the mk 2 model "soon", after the original multi million pound effort ended in abject failure ! Unless you bring the likes of Google or Apple on board (with the resultant escalation in costs) it's an extremely difficult process as Westminster are clearly demonstrating. Still wouldn't help compliance from joe public which is where any such system hits issues. Our manual system works where people are willing to engage. An app will make no difference in that respect.

[sparky88]

2 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Teachers are required to provide estimates every year.  I'd be interested to see how this year's compare to previous years' estimate data.  I've not yet seen that anywhere.  Has anyone else? 

Letting this year's 'results' stand if wildly out of line (which they are) would be a huge mistake.  It would negate the achievements of those who've deservedly done well.  It would also have significant knock-on effects.  These effects would be felt in school, as well as in the wider world.  Lots of kids would suddenly be embarking on Higher and Advanced Higher courses for which they're not equipped.  To be honest, there'll be some of that anyway now, but without the downgrading, things would be worse.  

 

I absolutely agree that it is far from ideal. But I would argue the worst of all options is penalising students who would have done well, as the moderating seems to have done.

Hopefully the appeals process corrects some of the more overly officious moderating. 

[Monkey Tennis]

24 minutes ago, sparky88 said:

I absolutely agree that it is far from ideal. But I would argue the worst of all options is penalising students who would have done well, as the moderating seems to have done.

Hopefully the appeals process corrects some of the more overly officious moderating. 

I'd say the problem with the moderating wasn't so much that it was overly officious.  It's more that it was, by necessity, impersonal and therefore imprecise.  

The appeals system is being relied upon to correct the flaws and I hope it can.  A potential difficulty I see, and again something that might have contributed to the inflated estimates, is that teachers were invited to "infer attainment" as well as to reflect that already evident.  That inferring should still have happened within a fairly rigid framework of realistic expectation of course, but the incentives to step beyond it, seem to have outstripped the controls to support and ensure it.

[madwullie]

22 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

I'd say the problem with the moderating wasn't so much that it was overly officious.  It's more that it was, by necessity, impersonal and therefore imprecise.  

The appeals system is being relied upon to correct the flaws and I hope it can.  A potential difficulty I see, and again something that might have contributed to the inflated estimates, is that teachers were invited to "infer attainment" as well as to reflect that already evident.  That inferring should still have happened within a fairly rigid framework of realistic expectation of course, but the incentives to step beyond it, seem to have outstripped the controls to support and ensure it.

Jesus what a mess  

[effeffsee_the2nd]

Video on twitter showing one of the Nightingale Hospitals being dismantled.
Surprised by this. Surely it would be needed when the big bad second wave comes in a few months?

By some accounts they were very well kitted out but lacked the trained staff to man them correctly ( the kind that takes donkeys years of training)which meant they were a bit of a white elephant

[Todd_is_God]

8 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

By some accounts they were very well kitted out but lacked the trained staff to man them correctly ( the kind that takes donkeys years of training)which meant they were a bit of a white elephant

They were a panic response to a problem which, by the time they were even started on, didn't exist. They appeased the public though.

The SNP unnecessarily now using the SECC for a wee bit of routine stuff, and extending the 'lease' of it through the winter is straight out of the "look better" play book we are so accustomed to now.

The majority of their supporters will buy it, though. Which is what they want.

Edited August 6, 2020 by Todd_is_God