Grade Inflation

There is a rather interesting report in the Telegraph about the continuing rise in the numbers of pupils getting five A* - C grade GCSEs. It seems that when those five have to include both English and Maths the number drops considerably (from 82% to 16% in one case). This will not come as a surprise to many of you, indeed I've assumed for some time that much of the apparent grade inflation is down to higher proportions of pupils taking easier subjects (VGCSEs for instance). Not exclusively in GCSEs either, both A levels and degrees suffer from this. Of course it suits NuLabour not to challenge this, it makes it look as though their education policies are actually achieving something for the money that is poured into them.

The GCSE pass rate has increased each year since Labour came to power, from 45
per cent of pupils reaching the five or more benchmark in 1997 to 58 per cent
this year. The improvement has been cited as a key indicator of the success of
the Government's education reforms.

...however...

Schools which had been lauded for their improvement in previous years now drop
to the bottom of the table. The worst falls by 66 per cent from an 82 per cent
rate of achieving five or more GCSE passes at the top three grades (A* to C) to
just 16 per cent once the five passes have to include maths and
English.
Overall the pass rate drops from 58 per cent achieving five A* to C
grade passes to 45 per cent once maths and English are included.

So the question has to be asked; if you take into account the increasing popularity of easy subjects (and the ability to do more of them) as well as the tendency for teaches to become more attuned to - and teach for - the exact grade requirements, does grade inflation disappear? Well maybe, the number of pupils gaining five A* - C GCSEs which include English, Maths, Science, and a foreign language hovered around the 28-30% mark pretty consistently from 1996-2005*. There was a small drop from 2005-2006 probably caused by the decline in language study.

It is certainly something to think about.

*figures taken from The Economist Dec 7th I would post a link but their archive requires subscription.