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There is evidence of "unconscious bias" in favour of girls in the estimated marks provided by schools for this year's Leaving Cert students, according to an official analysis of grades.

A report by the State Examinations Commission (SEC) says while female students do better on average than males in exams, the gender gap was wider in school estimates compared to traditional exams.

It says this was not unexpected, given that research suggests "unconscious estimation bias" in similar contexts generally favours female students.

The report says it was not possible to correct against gender bias during its standardisation process of schools' estimated grades this year without "violating" commitments made over how the process would be conducted.

As a result, it said the Department of Education made "strong efforts" to address this by providing guidance to schools last May on the need to remain objective and avoid preconceptions about each student's performance.

Standardisation process

This year, Leaving Cert candidates were given a choice between receiving school-estimated accredited grades, sitting written exams or a combination of both.

The SEC's report notes that, prior to the pandemic, female students outperformed males in traditional exams, on average, by 5.7, 5.9 and 6.5 per cent respectively in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

School estimates resulted in a wider gender gap than this, at 7.9 points in 2020 and 7.7 points in 2021.

A standardisation process - which aimed to ensure consistency in results - had the effect of marginally narrowing the gap in these school estimates to 7.6 points in 2020 and to 7.2 points in 2021.

Overall, the gender gap between females and males widened in schools' estimated marks, with the exception of a few subjects.

Maths pattern

Higher-level maths is one of the few subjects where boys typically secure more top grades than girls.

However, this pattern was reversed under schools' estimated grades this year, with girls narrowly outperforming boys.

By the time, the written Leaving Cert exam results were factored into the final results, boys once again narrowly overtook girls in the proportion of H1 grades awarded to candidates in higher-level maths.

Overall, a gender breakdown of the final Leaving Cert results issued on Friday confirmed girls performed better than boys across the vast majority of higher-level subjects.

Girls secured a higher proportion of top grades - H1s - in 35 out of 40 higher-level subjects.

They include subjects such as applied maths, chemistry, agricultural economics, engineering and construction studies, where boys often outperformed girls in pre-pandemic times.

Boys secured more H1s in higher-level maths and computer science. They also outperformed girls in minority languages such as Italian, Portuguese and Hungarian, though these had relatively few candidates.

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Girls get Leaving Cert results boost from 'unconscious bias'

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Gender gap under estimated marks wider than with traditional exams, SEC finds

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Traveller Education_ Just 13_ of Traveller children complete second-level education (1) (1)

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Students should be given more say in how their Leaving Cert is assessed after the pandemic, given how stress and anxiety "significantly reduced" when they had options this year.

That's according to the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), which addressed the Oireachtas education committee on Tuesday.

The committee was meeting with school management bodies as it began a series of roundtable discussions on Leaving Certificate reform. Research from 2018 found that 83% of students claimed that the Leaving Cert in its traditional form was not the best way to assess their educational achievement, according to Paul Crone, NAPD director.

"This research was undertaken pre-pandemic and since then we have significantly more evidence and experience to inform our decision-making in relation to student assessment.

"We have learned that it is possible for teachers to assess their students. We have learned that entry to third level must be decoupled from terminal exam results. We have learned that students' anxiety and stress were significantly reduced when they had options.

He said students should be part of the reform process rather than an afterthought.

"Give students a stronger say in their learning and assessment. We must recognise and embrace the professionalism of the teachers who have proven that they can impartially and fairly assess their students."

Ireland is very fortunate to have a very professional teacher body, said John Irwin, of the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools (ACCS), told the committee.

The pandemic helped us realise we can survive without the Leaving Cert, he added.

"Who would have thought, two years ago that we would be able to put together a particular process to allow people to be able to progress into other pathways in their life.

"Students were central in all of the stakeholder engagements around the processes that were brought in. They will have a very important role over the next number of months and years, in discussing and seeing, we're seeing where senior cycle goes."

John Curtis, the general secretary of the Joint Managerial Body (JMB) said there is a balance to be struck in retaining what is good in the current system. Students have previously suggested that continuous assessment promotes independent learning and better prepares them for further education, he added.

"Our experience around assessment at Leaving Certificate over the past two years has given us much to reflect on in this regard and opens up possibilities some may never have thought possible."

Exams have a role to play in Leaving Cert reform but should not dominate, according to Paddy Flood of Education and Training Boards Ireland.

"We believe that the time is right now to develop a rich, multi-faceted assessment process for senior cycle that is not dependent on performance over a short window in time."

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organisation: national association of principals and deputy principals

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organisation: association of community and comprehensive schools

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Student voices need to be heard in Leaving Cert overhaul

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More than 80% of students claim the Leaving Cert in its traditional form was not the best way to assess their educational achievement

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It was never going to please everyone. The political decision to abandon the Leaving Cert exam in favour of calculated grades left the Department of Education with an impossible task: to assign accurate grades to students who didn't sit exams which never happened in courses they hadn't completed. Not just any exams, either - exams that are effectively a supersized test of memory and anxiety management, rather than a measure of six years' worth of the steady accretion of knowledge, intelligence and reasoning.

What was it to do? Any solution it came up with was going to be crude and less than universally popular, especially once the offers came out, and the reality dawned that 4.4 per cent grade inflation into a 7 per cent increase in CAO points does not go.

Inevitably, some parents are furious. They wanted their children's schools profiled - or their children profiled according to the school they attended

In the circumstances, the department seems to have decided it had a stark choice: disadvantage high-achieving students in lower-achieving schools, or disadvantage students in high-achieving schools. It could take the past performance of schools into account, along with teachers' own assessments, giving all students in schools with a strong track record of access to third level a head start. Or it could flatten the curve for everyone and narrow the gap between high-achieving and lower-achieving schools.

Ultimately, the choice to bin school profiling led to less accurate, but arguably more equitable, results. The idea that a group of students who were already comparatively privileged by accident of birth, postcode or parental income would be further rewarded simply for having spent six years in the company of others similarly fortunate sorts, was never going to fly. It may be the entire USP behind the private school system, but we're not accustomed to having it laid out quite so baldly.

The United Kingdom, being a society more comfortable with notions of elitism and entitlement than ours, gave it a whirl. Its A-level standardisation process disadvantaged bright students in schools with a poor academic track record, and gave a boost to those in high-scoring, fee-paying ones. The results of this experiment in reverse social mobility were entirely, disastrously, predictable. Universities said they were going to have "the poshest cohorts ever".

Minister for Education Norma Foley watched on from here, and wisely decided to abandon the doomed, repugnant idea of school profiling. But the discussion around it - the murmurings of legal action by private school parents - lifted the curtain on the inequities inherent in our supposedly fair education system.

Inevitably, some parents are furious. They wanted their children's schools profiled - or their children profiled according to the school they attended. Isn't that precisely why they forsake foreign holidays and dinners out, so they can pay for school fees and trips to the Gaeltacht and grinds, and claim their place among "the poshest cohort ever"? This week, we were reminded that some of those who send their children to a fee-paying school are not just after points or an education, but cachet; that much whispered about "edge".

The eye-rolling over middle class entitlement detracted from the real issues with this year's non-exam. No algorithm was ever going to be able to reflect the abilities, intelligence, hard work and talent of an entire cohort of students. Nobody could expect it to. Once school profiling was out of the picture, the solution the department came up with was a sledgehammer formula which squashed the curve of students' achievements. It took teachers' grades and estimated class rankings into account. It took a class's Junior Cert performance into account. It raised many students up to a level they could never have achieved if they'd actually sat the exams. It downgraded 17 per cent of teachers' marks. And it abandoned the gap year class of 2019 entirely - the 20,000 students who deferred applying to the CAO this year.

If it's conceivable that teachers in private schools might have succumbed to pressure to inflate students' grades this year, it's virtually certain that, if they are faced with the appalling vista of another ghost Leaving Cert next year, every teacher in the country will do it

It left private schools focused on delivering high results feeling discriminated against, though the department insists the process was blind. Yet the Institute of Education in Dublin claimed that nearly all of its 800 pupils - 96 per cent - had a grade reduced. Its students suffered an average drop of 30 points. Meanwhile, CAO points across the board have gone up by 7 per cent, despite a scramble to create almost 5,000 places. And, after a tough year, it left the class of 2020's achievements forever besmirched by the words "grade inflation".

None of it is fair. Even in a good year, the Leaving Cert isn't a fair assessment of a student's worth or abilities. And this isn't a good year. But there is still a way to salvage it. Students need to be offered full transparency on the process and a right of appeal: not just of the way the grade was calculated, but on the marks themselves. That process must happen over a short window, so students who are still disappointed can sit the Leaving Cert in November, and then get on with their lives. Beyond that, we need to look on this as an opportunity to shake up a dysfunctional education system altogether - one that is too enslaved to accidents of birth and parental income; one that puts far too much weight on rote learning and three fraught weeks in June.

Above all, we need to make sure that this never happens again. Because if it's conceivable that teachers in private schools might have succumbed to pressure to inflate students' grades this year, it's virtually certain that, if they are faced with the appalling vista of another ghost Leaving Cert next year, every teacher in the country will do it. They now know that it doesn't really matter what they say, because their marks will be adjusted upwards or downwards, according to what the algorithm decides.

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None of it is fair and we must fix it before another ghost Leaving Cert next year

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It was never going to please everyone. The political decision to abandon the Leaving Cert exam in favour of calculated grades left the Department of Education with an impossible task: to assign accurate grades to students who didn't sit exams which never happened in courses they hadn't completed.

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Traveller children do not feel included, wanted or safe in school - especially at second level - while their parents fear for them while they are in school, a report on the community's experience of the education system warns.

The Government-commissioned report, Out of the Shadows, conducted on behalf of the Department of Education as part of the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy (NTRIS) 2017-2021, remains unpublished.

"Rather than feeling a strong sense of belonging, the predominant feeling amongst the parents and students from the Travelling community . . . is one of being unwanted - both in school and by the settled community more generally in society," it says.

The report refers to "institutional and structural discrimination and racism within the education system" and says Traveller children feel "ignored" by some teachers when not asked for homework and given easier work than their peers.

The children described being called names such as "pikey", "knacker", "dirty" and "smelly" by their peers, and how other children refused to sit beside them. But when they raised such treatment with teachers, they often felt they were not taken seriously.

Others described feeling "sad" and "alone" at school, though some said they enjoyed aspects of the experience. Some said teachers or principals who were "interested in learning about Traveller culture" and had "zero-tolerance" policies on racist language had "very positive" impacts on them.

Cultural identity

On education, NTRIS says "access, participation and outcomes for Travellers and Roma in education" must improve and that "there should be a positive culture of respect and protection for the cultural identity of Travellers and Roma across the education system".

The 124-page report, by sociologist Dr Maria Quinlan, draws on detailed consultations with 104 Traveller and Roma parents and students, and 28 teachers and principals between November 2019 and January 2020. It aimed to establish a "baseline" of the communities' "lived experience" of the education system.

Participating parents who had felt "isolated and overlooked" in school themselves were "passionate about wanting something different for their children", it says.

While primary schools were generally welcoming spaces for Traveller parents, they found secondary schools "less welcoming".

They felt talked down to by teachers, who they felt "can often have low expectations of their children". The lives of Travellers, including accommodation challenges and poverty, as well Traveller culture, beliefs and identity, were ignored by many schools, making the education system seem "a 'settled' system . . . which Travellers must accept, and assimilate to, even if it does not meet their needs".

Teachers and principals described "deep frustration" that they were doing their best to support Traveller families but said education was "not valued" in "Traveller culture". Many believed Traveller children wanted to leave school at 16, for girls to "get married" and boys "to work".

'Discrimination'

Others felt the education system did "not deliver the same benefit for Traveller students as it does for settled students", adding that discrimination when seeking to access employment could "make progressing to the Leaving Certificate and . . . third level seem like a waste of time for Traveller families".

While a sense of "belonging" is key to full engagement in education, for the Travellers in the report "belonging is severely undermined by both wider societal racism and discrimination experienced within the education system".

Improving Travellers' experience of education would be "complex" and require a "multi-layered response", says the report.

"The education system has a key role to play but needs to be supported with wider cultural awareness, recognition and discussion of racism and discrimination at a societal level."

Asked when the report would be published, a spokesman for the department said: "Work is ongoing on a suite of reports on the theme of Traveller education. It is hoped to advance to publication the NTRIS baseline report as part of this work in the near future."

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Traveller children feel 'unwanted' in education system, says report

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Young people tell of name calling by peers and sense of being 'ignored' by teachers

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Universities call for Leaving Cert results to be given in June

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This article talks about the very low numbers of people from the travelling community who complete the leaving cert and go on to a third level education.The few points below should give you an idea of why they are so low and how we can improve on these numbers.
-Of those who drop out of second level, 55% have left by the age of 15, and the number of Traveller children who progress to third level represents just 1% of their community.
-The recently launched National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education 2015-19 aims to more than double the number of Traveller students attending part-time or full-time third-level courses — from 35 today to 80 by 2019.
-Around 70% of Traveller children live in families where the mother has no formal education.

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Girls get Leaving Cert results boost from ‘unconscious bias’

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Girls get Leaving Cert results boost from ‘unconscious bias’

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This years leaving cert had an 'unconscious bias' towards girls scores.

Pre-pandemic, female students out preformed male students in exams, in 2017 by 5.7 per cent, in 2018 by 5.9 per cent and in 2019 by 6.5.

Students were giving the choice of doing a written exam, getting predicted grades from the school or both. In 2020 girls out preformed boys by 7.9 per cent and in 2021 by 7.7 per cent.

This year girls out preformed boys across the vast majority of higher level subjects. Girls secured a higher amount of top grades in 35 out of the 40 higher level subjects.

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The idea of this essay is based on the unconscious gender bias which took place in the Leaving Cert. In my opinion, there should be no bias and no boost in points depending on who you are, whether that be race, gender, what school you go to etc. An example of a key thinker who agrees with me on this topic is Kathleen Lynch. A case study this is based on is the article published by The Irish Times that gave the statistics for the Leaving Certificate and claimed that girls had recieved a results boost from 'unconscious bias'.

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Stress and anxiety is significantly reduced when leaving cert students were given options.

Research from 2018 found that 83% of students claim that the leaving cert is a poor way to show their academic achievements.

Due to the pandemic,we've realised that we can survive without the leaving cert.

Students believe that continuous assessment promotes independent learning and prepares them for further education.

Paddy flood states "we believe that the time is right now to develop a rich,multi faceted assessment process for senior cycle that is not dependent on performance over a short window of time"

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Many students of the Travelling Community feel "unwanted" - Isolated by society and ignored by teachers and discriminated by many "settled" students.

Primary schools are said to be more welcome to traveller students than secondary schools. secondary traveller students said that they feel "talked down to" by teachers.

Teachers and principals have said that education is "not valued by the traveller community and that many members leave school at age 16 either "to work" or "start a family".

Others feel that progressing to the LC or third level is "pointless" to traveller students because they are not given the same benefits as other students because of mistreatment and discrimination.

The NTRIS (National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy) Baseline Report is hoped to help schools with the theme of Traveller Education in the near future.

Despite the report being titled the "NTRIS Baseline Report 2017-2021", the report still has yet to be published despite us reaching the end of 2021.

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Main Points

The standardised testing system is unfair according to the article.

“The United Kingdom, being a society more comfortable with notions of elitism and entitlement than ours, gave it a whirl. Its A-level standardisation process disadvantaged bright students in schools with a poor academic track record, and gave a boost to those in high-scoring, fee-paying ones.”

Students in traditionally high scoring, richer schools were upset that their predicted grades weren’t as high as usual.

The writer says that while it’s fair, it would never have been possible to please everyone, especially the private schools.

“No algorithm was ever going to be able to reflect the abilities, intelligence, hard work and talent of an entire cohort of students.”

The writer is saying that the system doesn't work, and that if we do it again, it definitely won't, that teachers will succumb to pressure and adjust grades, because they'll be adjusted anyways.

Ultimately, the choice to bin school profiling led to less accurate, but arguably more equitable, results.

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Some said teachers or principals who were “interested in learning about Traveller culture” and had “zero-tolerance” policies on racist language had “very positive” impacts on them

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Some said teachers or principals who were “interested in learning about Traveller culture” and had “zero-tolerance” policies on racist language had “very positive” impacts on them

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The children described being called names such as “pikey”, “knacker”, “dirty” and “smelly” by their peers, and how other children refused to sit beside them. But when they raised such treatment with teachers, they often felt they were not taken seriously.

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The children described being called names such as “pikey”, “knacker”, “dirty” and “smelly” by their peers, and how other children refused to sit beside them. But when they raised such treatment with teachers, they often felt they were not taken seriously.

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“Rather than feeling a strong sense of belonging, the predominant feeling amongst the parents and students from the Travelling community . . . is one of being unwanted – both in school and by the settled community more generally in society,” it says.

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“Rather than feeling a strong sense of belonging, the predominant feeling amongst the parents and students from the Travelling community . . . is one of being unwanted – both in school and by the settled community more generally in society,” it says.

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Traveller children do not feel included, wanted or safe in school – especially at second level – while their parents fear for them while they are in school, a report on the community’s experience of the education system warns.

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Traveller children do not feel included, wanted or safe in school – especially at second level – while their parents fear for them while they are in school, a report on the community’s experience of the education system warns.

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Traveller children do not feel included, wanted or safe in school – especially at second level – while their parents fear for them while they are in school

The children described being called names such as “pikey”, “knacker”, “dirty” and “smelly” by their peers

Others described feeling “sad” and “alone” at school

NTRIS says “access, participation and outcomes for Travellers and Roma in education” must improve

While primary schools were generally welcoming spaces for Traveller parents, they found secondary schools “less welcoming”.

thers felt the education system did “not deliver the same benefit for Traveller students as it does for settled students”

these are the keypoints in the report are needed to be looked at and fixed

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Student stress significantly reduced when they had options on how to do their lc

Research from 2018 found that 83% of students claimed that the Leaving Cert was not the best examination method

Exams can be used, but shouldnt be the majority of the grade

Best possible way if for teachers to acess their students. This reduced stress

We believe that the time is right now to develop a rich, multi-faceted assessment process for senior cycle
(like thatll happen)

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Traveller children feel ‘unwanted’ in education system, says report

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Traveller children feel ‘unwanted’ in education system, says report

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Argument For
The Government-commissioned report, Out of the Shadows, conducted on behalf of the Department of Education as part of the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy, remains unpublished.

The predominant feeling amongst the parents and students from the Travelling community . . . is one of being unwanted – both in school and by the settled community more generally in society.

The children described being called insulting names by their peers. Other children refused to sit beside them. But when they raised such treatment with teachers, they often felt they were not taken seriously.

While primary schools were generally welcoming spaces for Traveller parents, they found secondary schools “less welcoming”.

This information supports Kathleen Lynch's  belief on focusing on achieving equality of condition rather than equal opportunity, as one's condition will influence one's opportunity.

Argument Against?
Some said teachers or principals who were “interested in learning about Traveller culture” and had “zero-tolerance” policies on racist language had “very positive” impacts on them.