Ministers have been urged to review the last year’s school exam appeals system following the discovery of wide disparities in success rates across the country.
In some schools fewer than 10 per cent of appeals were accepted by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) whereas in others up to 70% were successful.
The SQA and Scottish Government both claim that ‘some variability’ was expected, and that unsuccessful appeals were as a result of schools failing to submit evidence ‘consistent with the national standards for a higher grade, but critics insisted that action is needed to safeguard students’ rights and rejected ‘disgraceful’ attempts to blame teachers.
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Last year students in S4-6 sat traditional exams for the first time since the start of the Covid pandemic.
The SQA introduced an appeals system in which teachers submitted predicted grades for all students based on in-school assessments and ongoing work.
Those whose final exam performance fell short of expectations could then have their award reconsidered, with their school submitting supporting evidence such as prelim papers.
A ‘senior subject specialist’ would then review the evidence and award the appropriate grade, an approach that the SQA claimed would ‘ensure fairness for all’.
However, data previously published by the exams body had already revealed significant variations across different subjects – appeal success rates were as low as 5.4% for Higher Physics and as high as 77.5% for National 5 Accounting.
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Student deprivation levels also had a small effect on appeals, with those from the wealthiest backgrounds slightly more likely both to submit an appeal and see it accepted.
Now an investigation by The Herald has revealed the dramatic differences between schools in terms of the number of appeals submitted and the proportion that were accepted and lead to a change in grade.
In response to a Freedom of Information request, the SQA provided school-by-school data on entries (the total number of exams undertaken by students), appeal numbers and success rates.
Schools with low entry numbers were excluded – those with at least 300 entries were analysed at Higher level, and at National 5, which has a higher number of entries overall, data was restricted to schools with at least 500 entries.
At Higher level, the average appeals rate was 16.2%, with Glenwood High School submitting the most appeals (34.2%) and Dunfermline High School recording fewest attempts (5.7%).
The average success rate at this level was 33.7%, but while Castlehead High School had 63.2% of appeals granted, just 9.7% were awarded to Kirkwall Grammar School.
In many cases, schools with similar entry levels, and which submitted comparable numbers of appeals, experienced significant differences in their success rates.
Boroughmuir High School challenged 9.9% of 1038 entries with an 18.4% success rate, while George Heriot’s appealed 11.7% of their 1032 entries and saw 38.8% upgraded.
Kirkwall High School and Buckie High School had almost identical numbers of entries and appeal submissions, but more than four times as many were successful for students at the latter institution.
Significant disparities are also found at National 5 level, where an average success rate of 27.7% reflected a range from Renfrew High School (5.3%) to Currie Community High School (69.1%).
Three schools all had between 540 and 570 entries and submitted just under 100 appeals each, but while Kelso High School saw only a quarter awarded, and Ayr Academy managed a third, Bellshill Academy were successful in half of cases.
Glenrothes High School had 754 entries and submitted 126 appeals, securing upgrades in just 15.9% of cases, whereas at St Luke’s High School 130 appeals from 751 entries resulted in a 47.7% success rate.
Responding to the revelations, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley highlighted widespread Covid-related absences throughout the academic year.
She criticised the SQA for introducing the appeals system ‘months into the session, leaving little to no time for related professional learning for teachers’, and for its failure to engage in ‘professional dialogue’ with schools.
Ms Bradley also attacked the narrow range of evidence accepted by the SQA, which she stated had ‘rigidly insisted’ on material ‘generated through exam-type assessment experiences rather than accepting a broader range of assessment evidence as naturally occurs during the academic year.
“The EIS remains clear that one-off high-stakes assessment and the learning, teaching and assessment experiences that are built around it fall far short on the fairness and equity front,” she added.
Bruce Adamson, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland, said he also has concerns about the ‘worrying’ disparity in appeals outcomes across the country and the potential impact on students’ education, life chances and opportunities for work.
He said: “To avoid exacerbating inequalities and the attainment gap, the SQA should take into account the widest possible evidence, including prelim results, course work and assessment portfolios already submitted to SQA or schools.
“To support young people to be successful in their appeal teachers should be able to share all relevant evidence- a narrower process only risks disadvantaging young people even further.
“An inequitable appeals process has an impact that can last into adulthood, and it must be treated seriously.
“The Scottish Government has a duty to ensure children’s right to education and should review the SQA process so that no child is disadvantaged when making use of an exam appeal.’
Scottish Labour education spokesperson Michael Marra MSP attacked ‘ministerial and SQA incompetence’, which he said has had ‘real impacts on pupils and their life chances.’
He said: “Scottish Labour was highly critical of the huge delays in establishing an appeals process. We called for a fair system for months following the SNP-SQA chaos.
“This ministerial and SQA incompetence has had real impacts on pupils and their life chances. Minister’s failure to make decisions promptly is failing students and parents across Scotland.
An SQA spokesperson said: “The approach to appeals for all subjects was the same: for an appeal to be upheld, the learner’s alternative assessment evidence had to be consistent with the national standards for a higher grade.
“To ensure fairness to all, senior subject specialists – teachers and lecturers – did not know learners’ exam grades or estimates. Their job was to independently determine the appropriate grade that the evidence represented.
“As in previous years, some variability was expected between the number of upgrades across subjects and levels, as well as the proportion of entries appealed by course, and this can be seen in the school-level data.
“Overall learners engaged strongly with SQA assessments this year, with 81% of entries awarded their estimate or higher."
Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: ‘Teachers and lecturers do a fantastic job to deliver an effective appeals system that learners can rely on.
“Some variability is expected across centres, as well as across subjects and levels, as each case is treated individually."
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