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ONE IN FIVE Higher Level Leaving Cert Calculated Grades were downgraded from their teacher-assessed mark by one grade due to standardisation, according to the Department of Education.
At Ordinary Level, one in ten grades were downgraded by one grade.
The figures are contained in over 250 pages worth of documents published by the Department of Education, which explain the process used to standardise results and produce this year’s Leaving Cert grades.
The system – which opposition TDs had called on the government to publish to ensure transparency in the Calculated Grades process – uses sets of data to bring teacher-assessed percentages closer in line with previous Leaving Cert results.
Among the information that had already been known about the system is that it uses Leaving Cert students’ own Junior Cert results, as well as the average grade in each subject in the Leaving Cert the past three years, to standardise results.
The Minister for Education Norma Foley has repeatedly said that the system is “blind to gender” and does not use the location of students’ schools in standardising grades.
The link to the standardisation information can be found here.
1. Gender gap
The school-estimated grades resulted in a wide gender-breakdown: there was a gap of 5.7, 5.9 and 6.5 points respectively in 2017, 2018 and 2019 between female students scores and males (with females ahead).
While the gap had widened in successive years over the period 2017 to 2019, the increase to 7.9 points is too great to be considered a continuation of a trend.
The teacher-estimated marks put the gap this year at 7.9: standardisation reduced this to 7.6 points, which means that female students were downgraded more than male students.
Interestingly, the gender gap in exam scores tends to be wider among students attending mixed-sex schools than in single-sex ones. This trend remained in 2020 both in teacher-based assessments and in the Calculated Grade results.
2. A fifth of Higher Level grades lowered by one grade
Last week the Department of Education released detail about what percentage of Calculated Grades had been awarded to students. In the documents published today, more detail was given about what degree grades were lowered during standardisation.
One out of five Higher Level Calculated Grades were lowered by one grade, according to the Department’s documents:
“Most of the mark adjustments did not lead to changes of grade,” the report says.
A report compiled by the National Standardisation Group, which includes experts that oversee the implementation of the standardisation process, gives a breakdown of how dramatically grades were altered, giving a mark-breakdown per Leaving Cert level.
A mark refers to a point given when correcting exams, which is then converted to a percentage (eg, ten marks awarded out of 20 is 50%).
It states that:
3. Clustering
The appendices of the National Standardisation Group’s report notes that teachers were prone to ‘clustering’ marks when assessing their own students, giving marks close to “known locations of grade boundaries”.
This means they tended to give marks in multiples of five, and a graph of this year’s Leaving Cert scores tallies with that expected trend:
Although the Department of Education warned against this in giving guidance to teachers, it appeared anyway, as was expected.
Clustering was less apparent in leaving Cert Applied subjects, which is likely to do with the different numbers of credits associated with different exams and tasks, meaning that teachers are less sure of where the threshold mark for a certain grade is.
To tackle the clustering issue, the Department of Education said that school estimates were “combined and smoothed to produce a broadly supported discrete distribution for the entire school”.
The documents published today were the Discussion Paper for SEC-DES Technical Working Group on Calculated Results (39 pages); the Report from the National Standardisation Group (205 pages); the opinion of the Independent Steering Committee (12 pages); and the External Reviewer’s statement (5 pages).
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Excellent article. Understanding the disorder is crucial in trying to balance a response to the humanity of the Narcissist and protect yourself from the gaslighting etc. Thank you.
@Lucy Tegeler: You see, that’s part of the problem:
He\ she is not an a-hole, they have a disorder. That’s the perfect excuse.
@Wolfgang Bonow: it’s one of the most stigmatized disorders you could have, like being a psychopath or antisocial personality disorder.
I have the misfortune to have someone like this in my family. She married a vulnerable narcissist who made her worse. Neither are diagnosed. If they were diagnosed there might be hope. There is no hope with undiagnosed NPD. They are not alive and in the world like normal people. They are broken inside, and I think it is often a combination of a neurodiverse condition and deepset trauma. A true narcissist is entirely a performance, either of charm or attention grabbing rage and victimhood. In truth they have no personality, no soul. There soul potential or inner child has been locked away, most likely forever
The figure of 1 to 2 % of the population suffering from NPD is based on clinical diagnosis % ages. A quirk of NPD is that the sufferer can not recognise that there is something wrong with their behaviour. It is always the other person’s fault. And they revert to the role of either hero or victim . The best professional who focuses in this field Dr Romani durvasula, author of the best seller ‘its not you’ puts it above 10%.
@John Dolan: Well said. Dr Romani is excellent on this, certainly much better than this article
@John Nolan: check out The Little Shaman on youtube. She is far ahead of Ramani and everyone else I’ve read or listened to over the last ten or more years of dealing with a narcissist.
I worked for many years in the judicial system in the United States, several years in the family court ‘arena’— seen many many narcissists putting their own ‘rules’ above those of the court in processings involving children/ custody.
@Mary Linton: probably happens here too Mary
@Mary Linton: Try listening to Niall Breslin
@Argus Romsworth: sure, Argus, what is it – a podcast?
@Mary Linton: a narcissist
@Argus Romsworth: oh right, gotcha!! lol
Somebody suffering with NPD does not love themselves or have a high opinon of themselves, instead they love the false image they are projecting in order to get NS ‘narcissist supply ‘and will defend that false image in an over the top way. If you point out to them the gulf between their words and their actions, you will experience an over the top anger outburst, and relentless smear campaign behind you back, in their mind, they are never wrong, so it must be you. The truth is , they are so damaged they hate their real self, and can not see that they are worthy just the way they are, perfectly imperfect humans , like the rest of us.
@John Dolan: exactly. These are broken, soulless, half formed beings. They should be pitied… from a distance. I think the last 5 of the dsm traits are far more accurate, then the first few. I’ve known a few people who I thought were narcissists at first because they were a bit full of themselves or boastful and then turned out to be some of the loveliest people I ever knew. And then I met some quite humble seeming, even awkward people who turned out to be full blown narcissists. Honestly it’s a little bit of a misnomer
10 ways to know if your partner is a psychopath. 10 ways to know if your child has low self esteem. 10 ways to know if your friend is a narcissist.
It’s an industry folks and a great way to get published if you have the requisite letters behind your name. Stop psycho-analysing your friends and family. No amount of “10 ways” qualifies you to do it. It takes all types to make a world.
@Louis Jacob: people have to recognize toxic people to survive. It can certainly be done in a superficial way, but if you are waiting for the apparent narcissist in your life to get diagnosed, to be sure to be sure, good luck! On the other hand, bad people are bad people, and should be treated as such.
@Louis Jacob: agree. Instagram pop phycology needs to stop.
@James MC: it’s not going to stop anytime soon, so you perhaps you need to rise above it. Whether it’s pop or not, people have every right to discuss psychology in their own imperfect way. Sure some are exploiting the situation, but curiosity about the human condition and discussing one’s experiences and ideas is surely a good thing, is it not?
@2q6v4IEp: the power of suggestion. However if you’ve any thing wrong upstairs you should not be on social media to begin with.
Useful step by step advice for the EU in their upcoming negotiations.
Pretty much every “key note speaker” ever!
So I was reading a Narcissist is the same as a Sociopath.
My husband was a sociopath and had all the traits of Narcissist
@Mary Sharkey Kavanagh: That’s the problem isn’t it.
@Mary Sharkey Kavanagh: Perhaps they are/were both?
@Mary Sharkey Kavanagh: you better get rid of him he is a danger to you.
Woe is me.
A very dangerous person when involved in a marriage where children are because, if a male and the marriage is going to end they can become violent with terrible consequences. And if a female, and the marriage is going to end, they can claim domestic abuse or cease access between children and fathers. As they have no empathy they do not care about the impact on the child or their spouse.
@AnthonyK: speaking from personal experience the female narcissist can become violent too
Well I stepped into an avalanche,
it covered up my soul;
when I am not this hunchback that you see,
I sleep beneath the golden hill.
You who wish to conquer pain,
you must learn, learn to serve me well.
Leonard Cohen’s song Avalanche is the most perfect articulation of narcissism I know of. If have been through narcissistic abuse, listen to it and read all the lyrics. It’s devastating, terrifying and truthful
They are evil! They cause chaos and pain and blame everyone else and play the victim.
@Niamh Healy: they sound like everyone’s favorite trashy ethno state in the middle East..
1 to 2% of population are narcissists? More like 20 yo 30% with social media. The best way to deal with them is to nuke them.
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