LC & JC marking standards

gaiscioch

Number of Leaving Cert correcting errors ‘is worrying’


I've had concerns about this for the past month in particular. Out of 25 LC students in one of my subjects 4 appealed. 2 went from a H3 to a H2, one went from a H4 to a H2 and one went from a H3 to a H1. The extent of the last two jumps in particular are quite concerning. Leaving aside the obvious anguish the original results caused for students, the recheck results significantly changed the percentages in terms of overall results here. It was, however, after we had a big meeting feeling crap about why the results were not as good as last year (it's a particularly results-orientated school).

To give the SEC its credit, however, it's very good that they have the integrity to admit their marking was wrong. So, this topic is a tricky one to be too critical of.

Nevertheless, and to add to the LC, in the past week I've been told that most (all?) JC results in that same subject in my school have been rechecked at the insistence of the SEC themselves - or, rather, only one of the students actually appealed but a whole raft of upgrades came back. So, somebody in authority decided to voluntarily check the results en masse. Now, kids who were not going to choose the subject for LC because they got a C are choosing it because they got an A (I think there were 7 or 8 JC students who had such jumps). The poor marking really does affect their perception of the subject as well as their own academic ability. As a teacher I'm concerned about that.

Has this level of rechecks happened in other schools?

While I can understand if, because of the poor net pay, most examiners are new/relatively new, are there not a slew of supervisors meant to be checking these examiners? Essentially, is this poor marking the end result of the SEC, and ultimately the Department of Education, not making the remuneration for examiners attractive enough?

amacca

Some chickens coming home to roost all right. There are plenty more of them on the way.

I expect Bruton will find a way to blame teachers.

r93kaey5p2izun

I have seen a couple of increases recently that made me wonder. But it's very rare for students in my school to even view a script because they can't afford the appeals fee.

deiseindublin

Scary to think that all were remarked without school asking. Wonder was it a full subject or just one examiner?

happywithlife

deiseindublin wrote: »

Scary to think that all were remarked without school asking. Wonder was it a full subject or just one examiner?

I'd imagine that was an individual marker as remember a few yrs ago biology (if memory serves me right) had a big recheck and it made the headlines - something accepted in the MS at appeal stage that hasn't been accepted initially.
I correct HL LC and the bell curve drives me bananas personally. I understand and indeed agree with the reasoning for it but it's application at times us beyond frustrating. You know sometimes you can just get a batch of really really good or bad scripts from a large centre/school but you must conform to that bell curve per 50/100 or whatever. It's maddening

Mardy Bum

happywithlife wrote: »

I'd imagine that was an individual marker as remember a few yrs ago biology (if memory serves me right) had a big recheck and it made the headlines - something accepted in the MS at appeal stage that hasn't been accepted initially.
I correct HL LC and the bell curve drives me bananas personally. I understand and indeed agree with the reasoning for it but it's application at times us beyond frustrating. You know sometimes you can just get a batch of really really good or bad scripts from a large centre/school but you must conform to that bell curve per 50/100 or whatever. It's maddening

It is usually only the first 50/100 that gets a bad hand though, isn't it?

Stewie Griffin

What's your subject, OP?

Your story sounds like our subject meeting on our first day back in August, and it got me curious. Lots of handwringing in our place too about results. A colleague was a corrector, and his war stories wouldn't fill you with confidence about the marking system.

infor123

Wondering what subject areas were the issue as we had a similar issue in a couple of subjects

gaiscioch

At LC and JC these were all history exams. I had never heard of all papers being rechecked in a subject without the students requesting it so that was a surprise when the principal walked in with a long list of JC upgrades (JC rechecks are actively discouraged here). Looking at the number of students who were raised two grades gives the impression that the marking was particularly careless.

spurious

The speed some people correct (or claim to be able to correct) some LC papers is frightening.

infor123

gaiscioch wrote: »

At LC and JC these were all history exams. I had never heard of all papers being rechecked in a subject without the students requesting it so that was a surprise when the principal walked in with a long list of JC upgrades (JC rechecks are actively discouraged here). Looking at the number of students who were raised two grades gives the impression that the marking was particularly careless.

Some of our queries were in science