GCSE Results Day Cannot Reflect the Years of Hard Work my Students, and Staff, Have Put In
If you worked hard for your students, delivered good lessons, gave them feedback, imparted your wisdom and tried your best, you have done your bit, says Andy Lewis…
- by Andy Lewis
On Thursday, 190 students will receive a number from 1 to 9 to sum up two years working with my RE department on the new GCSE in Religious Studies.
My team are great, and worked really hard in delivering the new specification; they tried to prepare these young people in the best way they could. I’m sure you did the same; you’re a teacher, that’s what we do year after year.
On results day, all of us will have students that we feel have got reward for their hard work, but others where we will feel they have missed out. Some will shock us, in a good way. A few we may feel surprisingly overachieved.
There will also be one or two, who despite everything we tried, will walk away with a U; nothing to show for over 120 hours of lessons. We cannot help feel a great sadness, frustration and even anger at such situations.
It’s natural, as teachers, our results validate who we are and what we do. A good teacher gets good results, right?
In 2014, the American Statistical Association was highly critical of the value-added method (VAM), often used in the US and UK as a means of assessing teacher performance, and ultimately, therefore, pay.
It claimed that teachers account for just 1% to 14% of the variability in test scores. This is as the method highlights correlation, rather than causation.
A student who does well might be doing so for a great number of reasons, not just the teacher.
Also, as the teacher, we know there are a number of often significant reasons why a student may underperform. We all know the student who was ill, bereaved, abused or otherwise distracted during their exams, at no fault of their own.
Yet we are not helpless. Some of what has gone on in my department in the last two years will not be what is measured in that 1 to 9.
We have hopefully contributed to them growing into fine young people in many different ways. They will come back to visit, and they will go on to achieve great things – at university, in employment, while volunteering, with their own families.
Some of them in years to come will fondly recall their RE lessons, and list us as their favourite teachers for their school days.
We may feel it, but we cannot be professionally validated solely by our results. They are important, and a good set of qualifications will help achieve great things for many students. There are many other ways to be a success.
However, I know my team want to give every possible opportunity for the brightest future for the students they have taught for the last two years.
If you worked hard for your students, delivered good lessons, gave them feedback, imparted your wisdom and tried your best, you have done your bit. The exam is something between the student and the exam board. How did they do?
Andy Lewis is Assistant Headteacher and Director of RE at St Bonaventure’s, Newham. He wrote a textbook and revision guide for the Edexcel RS GCSE for OUP. You can follow him on Twitter at @andylewis_re.
