High stakes assessment policy implementation in the time of COVID-19: the case of calculated grades in Ireland

Figures & data

Table 1. Evidence used by respondents to estimate marks and ranks.*

	Important**	Unimportant***	Undecided/NA
	%	%	%
6th Year exams prior to lockdown (Christmas, monthly etc.)	98	2	0
6th Year continuous assessments prior to lockdown (excluding Leaving Cert course work components.)	92	5	3
5th Year exams (Christmas, Summer, monthly etc.)	92	8	0
6th Year in-class formative assessments prior to lockdown (e.g. observation, questioning, discussions, self-assessments etc.)	88	12	1
Leaving Cert mock examinations	87	12	1
6th Year – engagement within class prior to lockdown	83	17	1
5th Year continuous assessments (assignments, projects, experiments etc.)	82	14	4
5th Year in-class formative assessments (e.g. observation, questioning, discussions, self-assessments etc.)	80	19	1
Your knowledge of how students you had taught in previous LC classes had performed in the LC	80	16	4
5th Year – engagement within class	68	31	1
Leaving Cert course work components	60	9	31
6th Year – engagement with learning outside of class prior to lockdown	56	41	3
Your experience of marking for the State Examinations Commission (SEC)	51	16	33
Your knowledge of how students in other LC classes in the school had performed in previous LCs	47	45	8
5th Year – engagement with learning outside of class (e.g. homework, clubs, societies etc)	37	58	5
Junior Cert Result for the subject listed in Q3b	29	63	8
Overall Junior Cert Results	17	76	8

*Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.

**Combined percentage: Very Important and Important.

***Combined percentage: Relatively Unimportant and Not Important at all.

Table 2. Decisions teachers made when estimating marks for individual students prior to attending alignment meetings.*

Percentage of students for whom the statement is true	Zero %	About 5%	About 10%	About 25%	About 50%	About 75%	90%+
	Percentage of respondents
a. I awarded a higher mark than I felt the student would have achieved in the LC because I knew the student needed a particular grade (e.g. to access a particular course or job)	94	3	1	1	0	0	1
b. I awarded a higher mark than I felt the student would have achieved in the LC because I thought other teachers in my school would mark leniently	93	3	2	1	1	0	1
c. I awarded a higher mark than I felt the student would have achieved in the LC because I thought other teachers in other schools would mark leniently	88	4	4	2	1	0	2
d. I awarded a higher mark than I felt the student would have achieved in the LC due to my knowledge of the student’s challenging circumstances outside of school	82	8	3	3	2	1	2
e. I should have given the student a failing mark but didn’t	79	17	2	1	0	1	0
f. I awarded a higher mark than I felt the student would have achieved in the LC because I thought the national standardisation process might bring the student’s grade down	66	9	8	6	4	3	4
g. I gave the student the benefit of the doubt and awarded a mark that moved him/her above a grade boundary	39	22	16	10	7	3	4
h. Estimating a mark was easy	6	5	8	9	20	34	17
i. I applied the DES guidelines strictly when estimating the student mark	2	1	1	1	3	16	77
j. I had plenty of evidence to estimate a mark	1	0	1	2	9	25	62
k. I gave the student a mark I believed was fair	0	1	1	0	1	5	92

*Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Table 3. Teacher reflections on the process of estimating marks/ranks for students prior to and during the alignment meetings.*

	Agree**	Disagree***	Undecided
Statements are ranked from high to low agreement in each section	%	%	%
1. Challenges during the initial estimation of marks/ranks
a) I found it easy to combine qualitative (e.g. classroom observations) and quantitative (e.g. exam marks) assessment data when marking/ranking my students	70	28	2
b) When estimating a mark/rank, I found it difficult to reconcile inconsistencies (peaks and troughs) in my students’ performance in the period leading up to the lockdown	51	44	5
c) I found it difficult to maintain an unbiased position when marking/ranking my students	38	60	2
2. Challenges during the alignment meeting process
a) I found it easy to justify my marks and/or class ranks to colleagues	89	8	3
b) I found it hard to voice my concerns about how colleagues arrived at their marks and/or class ranks	23	68	10
c) The way in which marks and class ranks were estimated differed among teachers in my school	38	45	17
d) I awarded a higher mark than I felt students would have achieved in the LC following discussions with colleagues during alignment meetings	26	72	3
e) I awarded a lower mark than I felt students would have achieved in the LC following discussions with colleagues during alignment meetings	17	80	3
f) My students would have received a higher mark than I gave if they had been in a colleague’s class	13	73	14

*Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.

**Combined percentage: Strongly Agree and Agree.

***Combined percentage: Disagree and Strongly Disagree.