Further to my last, see below, technology seems sometimes to confer an immunity to human feeling.
Just heard another interview about A level results. In one school, one child got an E last year. But this year, the estimated grades were all above E.
So the algorithm downgraded them all to make the lowest grade an E.
The interviewed person went on about how wonderful it all was, how "incredibly" hard everybody was working, and how "complex" the challenge was, of taking teachers' estimates of how the pupils they'd been teaching for years would do - and changing them to something else based on a belief (I guess, see below) that teachers can't be trusted.
The interviewed person ended up confirming that if the young woman appealed, she'd be pretty certain to get a grade based on her ability rather than some cheap algorithm's statistical need for somebody to get an E grade.
The young woman, who also spoke, sounded worried. I turned off the radio and thought about the statistics for anxiety and depression among female teenagers, and about how long it takes for an appeal process to work.
Ofqual, pronounced Off-Qual, is The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. Off-Kwol, sorry, Offqual, no, Ofqual, regulates qualifications, examinations and assessments in England. Thanks, Google. Hope they don't come down too hard on Spelpron*.
I feel for that young woman.
*Do we need the footnote? Spelling and ... ? For five marks.**
**Downgraded to three. That's categorised as an easy question.
Just heard another interview about A level results. In one school, one child got an E last year. But this year, the estimated grades were all above E.
So the algorithm downgraded them all to make the lowest grade an E.
The interviewed person went on about how wonderful it all was, how "incredibly" hard everybody was working, and how "complex" the challenge was, of taking teachers' estimates of how the pupils they'd been teaching for years would do - and changing them to something else based on a belief (I guess, see below) that teachers can't be trusted.
The interviewed person ended up confirming that if the young woman appealed, she'd be pretty certain to get a grade based on her ability rather than some cheap algorithm's statistical need for somebody to get an E grade.
The young woman, who also spoke, sounded worried. I turned off the radio and thought about the statistics for anxiety and depression among female teenagers, and about how long it takes for an appeal process to work.
Ofqual, pronounced Off-Qual, is The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. Off-Kwol, sorry, Offqual, no, Ofqual, regulates qualifications, examinations and assessments in England. Thanks, Google. Hope they don't come down too hard on Spelpron*.
I feel for that young woman.
*Do we need the footnote? Spelling and ... ? For five marks.**
**Downgraded to three. That's categorised as an easy question.