WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.560 One feature of our public assessment system mentioned by previous speakers, 00:00:08.920 --> 00:00:16.080 and always mentioned by English parents in Switzerland when I ask them how much they trust the system that they've come from, 00:00:16.400 --> 00:00:18.280 is alleged grade inflation. 00:00:19.060 --> 00:00:25.120 The proportions of the population in Switzerland gaining a maturity are remarkably consistent over time. 00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:26.880 Obviously the country is stagnating. 00:00:27.560 --> 00:00:30.280 Despite the fact, as I was assured the other weekend 00:00:30.280 --> 00:00:34.340 by the federal official responsible for the examination centre I visited, 00:00:35.180 --> 00:00:39.280 assessment is entirely criterion-referenced and not normative, I was told. 00:00:40.160 --> 00:00:44.260 Now, I know all the reasons that explain the rise in the proportions of the population 00:00:44.260 --> 00:00:48.700 gaining high grades in A-level and GCSEs, and I believe almost all of them. 00:00:49.420 --> 00:00:51.920 There have been major changes in the nature of A-levels, 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:53.920 which are educationally disputable, 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:58.200 but nowhere have I seen evidence for an unequivocal dumbing down, 00:00:58.480 --> 00:01:00.260 or at least where there have been losses, 00:01:00.820 --> 00:01:04.640 these have often also been offset by some corresponding gains. 00:01:05.220 --> 00:01:11.180 And yet, for some of the reasons that Barry McGraw was citing, 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:17.060 this rise in proportions gaining top grades is not credible to a lay audience, 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:21.200 nor is it desirable in terms of the function of the A-level qualification 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:24.820 to ensure effective discrimination between candidates, 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:28.420 especially right at the top end of the attainment range. 00:01:28.980 --> 00:01:31.000 I sometimes have the perhaps unworthy thought 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:35.400 that the main attraction of the IB diploma for many admissions tutors 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:40.260 is not so much the quality of the overall IB programme, 00:01:40.580 --> 00:01:43.900 but the way it makes a low-cost, Cambridge accepted, 00:01:44.320 --> 00:01:47.420 a low-cost selection process a lot easier 00:01:47.420 --> 00:01:51.620 because of the extended nature of the IB diploma scale. 00:01:52.800 --> 00:01:56.040 All the suggestions for introducing finer discrimination 00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:56.980 in A-levels that were 00:01:56.974 --> 00:02:03.394 discussed when I was working at QCA, carried disadvantages, above all in terms of the negative 00:02:03.394 --> 00:02:09.594 backwash effects on students' broader educational program, again a point made by Baroness O'Neill. 00:02:10.034 --> 00:02:15.094 The Advanced Extension Awards, which I was always very keen on, were proving educationally very 00:02:15.094 --> 00:02:20.694 valuable, but when I last heard of them, were completely failing to serve any useful function 00:02:20.694 --> 00:02:24.334 in terms of providing data for university entrants 00:02:24.334 --> 00:02:27.594 simply because so few people were taking them. 00:02:28.894 --> 00:02:30.654 I move to my last two points. 00:02:30.934 --> 00:02:31.714 The lights come on. 00:02:32.014 --> 00:02:33.094 I haven't got much longer. 00:02:33.754 --> 00:02:34.834 They're both quite short. 00:02:34.994 --> 00:02:37.754 First, I've been struck by how much easier it is 00:02:37.754 --> 00:02:39.454 for parents, students and the public 00:02:39.454 --> 00:02:42.034 to grasp the idea of a qualification 00:02:42.034 --> 00:02:46.014 and to trust the assessment arrangements associated with it 00:02:46.014 --> 00:02:49.294 when the whole thing comes as a package. 00:02:49.974 --> 00:02:51.934 The IB Diploma is a curriculum. 00:02:52.574 --> 00:02:54.314 It isn't just a set of examinations. 00:02:54.694 --> 00:02:56.174 You sign up to a whole programme. 00:02:57.854 --> 00:02:59.974 So, too, is the French Baccalaureate. 00:03:00.094 --> 00:03:01.534 So, too, is the Swiss Maturité. 00:03:02.074 --> 00:03:06.534 The difference between these and England's à la carte qualification system, 00:03:06.734 --> 00:03:09.634 GCSEs, AS levels, A levels, all those modules, 00:03:10.074 --> 00:03:12.414 and the IB Diploma or the Maturité Suisse 00:03:12.414 --> 00:03:15.714 is a bit like the difference between the village store, 00:03:15.714 --> 00:03:17.714 which is highly familiar and intimate, 00:03:17.714 --> 00:03:21.814 where the layout is easier to grasp, where you feel at home because you're known, 00:03:22.154 --> 00:03:26.254 and on the other hand the large supermarket with its maybe vastly superior 00:03:26.254 --> 00:03:29.834 but somewhat impersonal and rather confusing choice. 00:03:30.614 --> 00:03:34.134 Embarking on a programme, even though there are many choices within it, 00:03:34.454 --> 00:03:38.574 generates a greater sense of knowing where one is and where one is going 00:03:38.574 --> 00:03:42.334 than selecting qualifications from an a la carte list. 00:03:42.754 --> 00:03:46.214 When one's talking of trust, in a restaurant one knows well, 00:03:46.214 --> 00:03:48.154 and if I may change the metaphor slightly, 00:03:48.574 --> 00:03:52.614 there can be advantages in the table d'hote over the à la carte.