So if I understand this correctly, Scottish teachers estimated their pupils' A level grades. Because the exams couldn't take place, Covid, et cetera.
Then an algorithm belonging to Scotland's education authority, without consulting anybody, downgraded those estimates.
Was it programmed to assume that the teachers would be over-generous?
Or that they wouldn't know their pupils as well as some big clump of central-government AI?
Maybe they weren't to be trusted with doing their jobs - your guess is as good as mine.
Then Scottish parents objected. Then the government caved. Now pupils will be getting the grades their teachers estimated for them.
A story with a happy ending. Moral: when we ask technology to run something, sooner or later, it reveals its stupidity.
Education Scotland is "a Scottish Government executive agency responsible for supporting quality and improvement in Scottish education" (thanks, Google). Reassuring to know they're there.
I saw yesterday that the UK government has adjusted its counting methodology for Covid deaths. There have been 5,000 fewer Covid deaths than we thought. Those 5,000 people remain dead, but not from Covid.
Fair enough. There's a long history of governments adjusting the way they count, and okay. But they somehow always find a way of doing it that reduces the bad total or increases the good one.
Bet they use an algorithm.
Then an algorithm belonging to Scotland's education authority, without consulting anybody, downgraded those estimates.
Was it programmed to assume that the teachers would be over-generous?
Or that they wouldn't know their pupils as well as some big clump of central-government AI?
Maybe they weren't to be trusted with doing their jobs - your guess is as good as mine.
Then Scottish parents objected. Then the government caved. Now pupils will be getting the grades their teachers estimated for them.
A story with a happy ending. Moral: when we ask technology to run something, sooner or later, it reveals its stupidity.
Education Scotland is "a Scottish Government executive agency responsible for supporting quality and improvement in Scottish education" (thanks, Google). Reassuring to know they're there.
I saw yesterday that the UK government has adjusted its counting methodology for Covid deaths. There have been 5,000 fewer Covid deaths than we thought. Those 5,000 people remain dead, but not from Covid.
Fair enough. There's a long history of governments adjusting the way they count, and okay. But they somehow always find a way of doing it that reduces the bad total or increases the good one.
Bet they use an algorithm.