Scottish pupils risk being punished for schools’ past failures, says Barry Black

University of Glasgow PhD Student, and UBDC associate, Barry Black has been quoted in an article on The Scotsman website.

The piece, entitled 'Scottish pupils risk being punished for schools’ past failures', examines the fear that Scottish schoolchildren could be disadvantaged after the Scottish Qualifications Authority said it would “moderate” results based on the performance of previous students. This new system has been developed by the SQA following the cancellation of all examinations due to the coronavirus lockdown.

In the article, Barry says that the use of historical attainment data for statistical adjustment by the SQA “would seem to further disadvantage already disadvantaged pupils.”

He adds:

“Young people’s results may now be determined by the results of past cohorts. This policy is a further hurdle for disadvantaged pupils in Scotland. Under these criteria, a teacher awarding a top grade to a pupil in a school with below average attainment is more likely to have that challenged by the SQA than if they are in a school with higher average attainment. That cannot be fair."

The full article is available on The Scotsman website.

Read Barry's latest blog on Unleashing the ‘new normal’ in Scottish schools.