Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising this issue and allowing me to address it.

The provision of calculated grades to students arose in the unprecedented circumstances of our not being able to run a leaving certificate examination, as the Deputies will all be aware. The concept was first mooted by students and there was an extensive process of engagement with education stakeholders and an agreement to proceed with the calculated grades process. Under the model, estimated marks from schools were adjusted, using a carefully developed standardisation model to ensure a consistent standard was applied across schools across the country, when judging the performance of students. Standardisation takes place every year in marking the leaving certificate examinations. That is an extremely important point. While teachers are familiar with their own students, they cannot be expected to have knowledge of the standards nationwide. Standardisation allows student-to-student comparability across the country.

As Deputies may be aware, at the start of September I brought to the Cabinet a proposal to remove school-by-school historical subject level data from the national standardisation process used to determine calculated grades. This decision meant that no student's calculated grade was impacted by the historical performance of the school he or she attended. The statistical procedure has been subject to a high degree of oversight by the national standardisation group which was established to oversee the work. Its implementation has also been independently overseen by an independent steering committee, chaired by Dr. Áine Lawlor, former director of the Teaching Council. All the information regarding the process and its oversight is fully transparent and it is available online at .

As Deputies will know, as part of the process, schools provided the Department with an estimated percentage mark and rank order for each student. Following the standardisation process, the estimated percentage mark was converted to a calculated mark and, subsequently, to a calculated grade. This was provided to students on 7 September. It is only at this point that students were awarded a grade.

It is not accurate to state students were downgraded, or upgraded, through the standardisation process; rather, the grade that was awarded following the standardisation process is the grade for the 2020 leaving certificate calculated grades.

The system of calculated grades allowed the Department to provide results to over 60,000 students, many of whom have now received CAO round one offers. Some 80% of CAO applicants received a CAO offer from their top three preferences. Of all grades awarded, 83.1% were either the same or higher than the grade that school estimated percentage marks would have awarded, while 16.9% were lower. The increase of 4.4 percentage points in the average marks across all subjects and at all levels this year is present across all types of schools. It was inevitable, however, that some students would have their estimated marks adjusted downwards as part of standardisation.

The overall data from school estimated marks show there was a very significant rise in estimated grades against what would normally be achieved nationally in examinations. Without standardisation in some subjects, the number of H1s awarded would have been two to three times higher. This would not have been tenable and would have presented considerable difficulties for higher and further education.

While some students had a lower percentage mark awarded following standardisation, it is possible that many of the concerns being raised are based on what marks schools estimated for their students this year rather than on the results attained in examinations across previous years. I believe this is the point made by the Deputies. The standardisation process was applied to all schools in the same way, irrespective of whether the school was in the State system or was fee charging.

With regard to schools outside the State system, data analysis in the report of the national standardisation group shows that schools in the non-recognised category, which is made up largely of institutions often referred to as "grind schools", overestimated their student marks to a greater extent than in recognised schools.

Furthermore, when comparing the results of students in fee-charging schools in the State sector and in the private non-recognised schools institutes versus those in non-fee-charging schools, those in fee-charging schools and institutions still have higher scores than students in non-fee-charging schools even after standardisation.

Students who are disappointed with one or more of their calculated grades had the opportunity to submit an appeal. The appeals process closed yesterday, Wednesday, 16 September at 5 p.m. The appeals process is a review focused on looking for errors in the transmission and processing of student data through the process.

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