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welcome this instructional video is designed to assist schools further education and training centers and all other settings in the process of arriving at an estimated mark and class rank order for each student in this leaving certificate class group in each of their subjects the processes of estimation and ranking comprise the school based part of the system of calculated grades which is being offered to students this year the arrangements in this video applied to the established leaving certificate subjects the leaving certificate applied subjects vocational specialisms and tasks and the link modules of the leaving certificate vocational program in the first section of this video we will answer questions including what our calculator grades and how we'll calculated grades we arrived at we will also outline the role of school and highlight some key considerations necessary when embarking on this process so what our calculated grades calculator grades are grades that can be provided to students following the combination of school information about a student's expected performance in an examination and national data available in relation to the performance of students in examinations over a period of time a calculator grade results from the combination of two data sets firstly a school-based estimation of an overall percentage mark and ranking to be awarded to a student in a particular subject secondly data and past performance of students in each school and nationally the combination of these datasets through a process of national standardization determines the grade to be awarded to each student in each subject thereby resulting in a calculated grade the role of the school is to provide marks and rankings that reflect an estimate of the percentage mark in each subject that each student is most likely to have achieved if he or she had sat the Leaving Certificate Examination in 2020 a class ranking for each student in each subject that is a list of all the students in each individual class group for a particular subject in order of their estimated level of achievement teachers are asked to use the professional judgment drawing on existing records and available evidence to arrive at an estimated mark for each student and a rank order for each class they will engage with their subject alignment group to make sure all teachers of the subject with final leaving certificate classes are applying a similar standard in respect of the same subject in the case of a subject for which there is only one teacher with a class for examination they will engage either with another teacher of the same subject or the deputy principal subject to the agreement of the principal principals are asked to provide oversight of the in-school alignment process to assist with ensuring that different teachers of the same subject are applying consistent and appropriate standards when the final school estimated marks and class rank orders are finalized the principal arranges for the inputting of data and its transmission to the calculated grades executive office of the Department for the national standardization process there are three important considerations at this point it is essential to include all students in the school irrespective of whether any individual student ultimately decides to opt in or opt out of receiving calculated grades an estimated percentage mark must be generated for all students and all must be included on the corresponding rank order for the class students will shortly be asked to confirm their level of entry via an online system once this process has completed the Department will confirm levels of entry back to the school and the principal or deputy principal will relay this onwards to the teachers however teachers should proceed on the assumption that each student remains entered for the subject at the level the teacher currently understands them to be at given that teachers are not able to make contact with their students no teacher should seek any further confirmation of the level directly from the student if there is any doubt about whether a higher level student has decided to change to ordinary level it should be assumed that he or she is remaining at higher level pending confirmation of the position the in school sign-off component of the process was not take place until after all levels are confirmed and there is an estimated percentage mark at the confirmed level for each student there are four forms available to assist with this process form a the estimated percentage mark form for recording each student's estimated mark form being the class rank order form for recording the rank order of the particular class form see is a school sign off on an estimated mark for a subject taken outside of the school and form D is a subject entry for which the school cannot sign off on an estimated mark in this section of the video we will focus on the areas of estimating marks and assigning rank order we will focus on a number of key areas including professional judgment and evidence that will inform the professional judgment making the preliminary judgement about marks and rankings the schools best estimate of the most likely percentage mark avoiding inappropriate clustering and unconscious bias completing the necessary forms and the in-school alignment process the cornerstone of the calculated grades model is a reliance on the professional judgment of teachers including principals and deputy principals in providing the best possible estimate of how each student is most likely to have performed in the examination if the disruptions caused by the covered one line virus had never arisen teacher professional judgment facilitates incorporating a range of available evidence of the likely performance of students teachers know their students and are able to balance a variety of evidence in arriving at a professional judgment in relation to each student's expected performance for these and other reasons the professional judgments involved need to be suitably informed by relevant data but they should not be overly constrained or dominated by such data teachers who do de drains of evidence to support their judgment making including both formative and summative assessment activities undertaken during the course of study as all tuition for leaving certificate students ceased with effect from the 11th of May additional assessments tasks or mock examinations must not now be set for the purposes of determining an estimated percentage mark furthermore students should not be disadvantaged if they have been unable to complete any work set after schools were closed on the 12th of March the questioned outlines are good prompts in terms of looking at the evidence available to you you the estimation of students marks and ranking should also be based on the assumption that schooling had carried on as normal in 2020 that students had finished out any relevant coursework components or assessments and practical examinations as normal and had taken their examinations under normal conditions estimation should also take account of evidence about student performance from both summative and formative assessment activities the knowledge and experience that teachers have of the curriculum and the examination are essential to this process judgment should draw on existing documentation and other available evidence and should have regard to any reasonable accommodations that apply in the case of particular students teachers use evidence every day when observing students at work and planning and adjusting learning activities basing judgments on evidence is not the same thing as basing judgments on records of evidence it is important to review all relevant available records but it is equally important not to be overly constrained in making judgments by considering only the forms of evidence that have generated these records not all forms of evidence will be grounded in records professional judgments may be informed by a number of factors records of performance may include assignments projects and experiments completed as part of normal learning activities performance and class assessments including house examinations Christmas exams monthly or Charlie assessments summary examinations and with caution mark examinations the estimated mark is a singer combined mark for all components of the examination written oral our practical and course work with each component contributing its normal weighting with the exception of Home Economics social and scientific it is important to note that teachers should not incorporate a full award of marks for the oral component of a language or for performing in music the earlier decision to cancel these assessments and to award full marks no longer applies in subjects for coursework is a factor it is important to consider the quality of students engagement and quality of any work completed when interpreting previous results teachers should draw also on their knowledge and experience of the structure and demands of the examination paper at the level concerned how the students of similar ability in previous years get on in the exam records may be available from school management to assist teachers in this regard projects or activities a particular student did that enhanced his or her knowledge and understanding of the subject improving likely performance clearly it is not possible for anyone to estimate with certainty the exact mark that any student will receive this is not what is required no matter how much or little certainty can be claimed for the judgment there is still always a most likely mark it is critical to the process that the school gives its most likely mark and not for example the mark that one may hope the student might get or the mark one may think they have a reasonable chance of getting on a good day when considering this it might be useful to think of it in terms of the illustration displayed in which the intensity of the shading represents the chances of a student getting a particular mark in the scenario in the illustration it will be disappointing if the student got a mark below 56% and it obviously will be pleasing if the student got a mark above 56% but the best estimate of the most likely mark is 56% making sure that students are placed in the correct rank order is of course important but it is also important to remember that the gaps between the estimated percentage marks are also important if for example there is one very strong student in the class it is not enough to make sure to put that student ahead of everyone else but equally important to ensure that the space between him or her and the others is a true reflection of the size of the gap the National standardization process that happens later might move all of these marks up or down or at my stretch or squash these gaps but the fairest outcome for all can only be achieved if the students are placed accurately relative to each other in the first place so in the example outlined if student D is much better than students a B and C then the gap between their estimated marks must show this clustering marks in proximity to multiples of five and ten means that the gaps between different students are no longer Acuras which means that some of the numbers no longer represent the best estimate of the most likely mark it is important to be aware that if estimates for some subjects are moved above a great boundary then this affects the collective accuracy of the distribution this may cause the National standardization process to move the estimate stone a little for everyone and this has the effect of disadvantaging other students in the class or in another class in school maximum fairness for all is achieved if the Department of Education and Skills if the genuine best estimate for each student in all cases it is very important to remain alert to possible sources of unconscious bias that might affect estimates for instance research in many countries shows that teacher estimates the student performance are often affected by the teachers experience and perceptions of the students classroom behavior by being alert to this source of unconscious bias there is a better chance of examining the evidence more objectively focusing on evidence that is clearly a badge attainment in the subject and not about other factors the RZA need to align standards between different class groups when the same teacher teaches two different class groups in the subject two or more teachers are teaching different leaving certificate class groups in the subject a single teacher may be teaching to different classrooms that may be nominally of mixed ability but where one is in reality a stronger group than the other perhaps as a result of self selection effects caused by the other subjects that are timetabled against that subject in the timetable blocks this is why the alignment procedures to be followed at school level are very important the process used for this is dealt with later in the video once the available evidence for a student has been considered by a teacher a preliminary judgment can be made as to the percentage mark that the student is most likely to have achieved at the level concerned and form a completed accordingly the estimate is not considered final until it has been through the in-school alignment and oversight processes and as a result of these processes becomes the school's estimated percentage mark the estimated percentage mark form a has been provided to assist with being systematic about this process a separate form should also be completed for each individual student some additional guidance about generating the estimated percentage mark in the case of leaving certificate applied will be outlined later when the teacher has completed estimated marks for each student he or she should then rank order each class of students a separate rank order for each level higher ordinary and foundation is required for each class these rank orders should be recorded on separate class rank order forms are form B for each level to prepare the rank order the teacher should take the relevant set of draft estimated percentage mark forms form a and place them in order with the highest estimated percentage mark at the top and the lowest at the bottom then on Form B the student identified with the highest estimated percentage mark should be entered as number one on the form and so on working through the class set of forms a and entering the students in the order of their estimated percentage mark the estimated percentage mark for each student should also be transferred from form a to form B what should you do when there are two or more students with the same estimated percentage mark in the first instance consider whether the mark has been estimated for each is the correct mark or whether it should be moved up or down for any of them if after consideration it is believed that the marks are correct as they stand then they should be left stand if it is decided to move them up they do not have to be moved by a whole number decimals may be used to one decimal place for example 53.2% if following this consideration the teacher concludes that the estimated mark is correct a decision must be made in relation to rank ordering these students for example if there are two students with an estimated mark of 74% and the teacher has concluded that both should remain at 74% then the teacher must use his or her professional judgment based on all the evidence he or she has considered in order to place the student that they are most confident will achieve that mark ahead of the other the purpose of the alignment process is to ensure that all teachers who are providing estimated percentage marks in respect of the same subject in the school are applying similar standards to each other when doing so it also has the purpose of ensuring to the greatest extent possible that this shared standard is aligned as closely as it can be to the national standard the process does not involve or lead to the school creating an overall rank order listing for all students taking the subject in the school the rank ordering is by class and within a class by level taken the main focus of the alignment process should remain on alignment of standards between classes for the same subject at the same level the professional judgment of the individual teachers is the most important input to the alignment process however crucially once the alignment process is complete the estimated percentage marks and the class rank orderings are considered to represent the collective professional judgment of all those involved rather than solely the professional judgment of an individual teacher once the principle is satisfied that the oversight process has been completed these marks and rankings are then considered to represent the collective professional judgment of the school the estimated mark that is transferred to the department is the school's estimated mark who is involved in the in-school alignment process in cases where two or more teachers have classes or students taking the subject concerned for the 2020 examinations these are the teachers who will be involved in the alignment process in the case of a subject for which there is only one teacher with a class for the 2020 examination the alignment process is carried out with the deputy principal or with another teacher of the same subject in the school who does not have a leaving certificate class in 2020 subject to the agreement of the school principal if the deputy principal is the sole teacher with an examination task and subject in the school then the alignment process is carried out with another teacher of the same subject in the school who does not have any certificate class in 2020 if applicable or with the second deputy principal or with the principal before the alignment process begins the teacher should have completed in draft a form a for each student in their class and placed all of these forms separated by level in rank order it may also be useful to have the rank order listing of students either by completing form B in draft form or otherwise the principal deputy principal will assist teachers with making arrangements for the alignment process to transact he or she would provide the teachers involved with whatever available data or information they consider useful to support the process and which the teachers may not already be in possession of it is recognized that given the special circumstances that arise from covert one nine different schools may need to transact the alignment process in different ways this will require engagement between teachers which may be in person or remotely there is no strictly delineated set of tasks that must be carried out during the alignment process this is because there are differences between the contexts of different schools the kinds of information schools and teachers have available to them how they organize that information and the kinds of information about student performance that may have informed the professional judgments made in different subjects it is important to consider a number of prompts and asked a number of questions when carrying out the alignment process these questions may include for example what do we collectively know about the different class groups to which we are trying to apply a common standard are we sure that they have focused on information about achievement and likely achievement rather than for example classroom behavior you are there particular students who are exceptionally strong are weak at this subject in comparison to others in the class or classes and other students that I are we have taught this list of questions is not exhaustive and these prompts do not all need to be considered any information that will enhance the fairness or accuracy with which the alignment group can form a collective professional perspective to align their standards with each other can be considered the alignment process may cause a teacher to revisit the estimated marks for one or more students which may in turn but not necessarily result in a change to the rank ordering to therefore following the alignment process each teacher should review the estimated marks and rank ordering and adjust them as necessary after the alignment process each teacher will finalize forms a and B for each level and for his or her respective class groups before submitting the two forms to the principal a final check should be carried out to make sure that each mark on Form B corresponds with the mark on that students form a you in this section of the video we will focus on a number of key areas including some students specific issues some program specific and subject specific information matters relating to the established leaving certificate subjects and SC VP and the leaving certificate applied it is important to consider a number of key student issues that may arise in your context for example students who are new to a class if a student has joined a class from another class in the school the teacher should consult with the previous teacher and get whatever relevant documentation he or she has if the student has joined a class from another school and if the length of time is such that it is considered that the teacher does not have enough evidence to make a sound judgment the principal our deputy principal should be consulted in the case of students who have recently changed level there may be one or more students in a class who have recently changed level from higher to ordinary or from ordinary to foundation level or about whom the teacher receives notification from the department through the school of a change of level when considering the available evidence of achievement for such a student the teacher should draw on his or her experience of how similar students in the past have fared when they changed level in estimating a mark for a student who has changed level teachers should base the professional judgment on the student concerned and the teachers on experience of students who have changed levels in the past if further help is required the in-school alignment process may be of assistance in relation to this in the case of students who are entered to take their examinations through Irish the teacher should base his or her estimate of the students likely mark on the assumption that the bonus that is applicable for answering the written paper to Irish is included in the estimate it is anticipated that most teachers who are teaching to Irish will have internalized and taken account of the impact of the bonus when making their initial judgments so that no explicit calculation of the bonus would be needed nevertheless if any teacher is unsure how the bonus applies in their subject information is available on the department's website where any reasonable accommodation has been approved for a student such as a reader scribe or waiver the estimate of the students likely performance should be based on the assumption that this accommodation would have been available had the examinations been conducted in the normal way since accommodations are intended to reflect students normal way of working in class this should not require any special intervention beyond the teachers existing understanding of how the student gets on with the relevant supports in place most subjects have more than one examination component whether that be coursework - written papers and oral or practical examination and so on when weighting the evidence each component must be given its usual waiting for the Leaving Certificate Examination in the case of these subjects a single overall estimated mark for the subject as a whole is required encompassing all of the examination components not a separate mark for each component the LCVP portfolio of coursework is being returned to schools and may assist teachers with the process of estimating marks as in the case of other subjects with a coursework component the estimated percentage mark should incorporate both the portfolio of coursework and the written examination they are not to be marked and are to be returned to the state examinations commission once the process has completed in relation to languages and music it should be noted that the earlier decision to cancel the oral component of the language examinations and the performing component of the music examination and to award full marks for these was based on the premise that the remaining components would proceed as normal this situation no longer applies therefore an estimated mark for language subjects should be based on the assumption that the oral examination component would have proceeded and have been marked in the normal manner likewise for music the estimate should be based on the assumption that the performance test would have proceeded and the student performed to his or her expected standard in the case of subjects with a coursework examination component as noted previously the estimate should be for the subject as a whole and take account of all evidence available in the case of coursework that has already been completed the overall estimate should incorporate the mark the teacher thinks that this coursework would have achieved if it had been marked in the normal way similarly where the coursework has not been completed the overall estimate should incorporate the mark the teacher thinks this coursework would have achieved if it had been completed and marked in the usual way in the case of home economics scientific and social this is the only subject with more than one examination component where teachers are required to provide an estimated percentage mark for the written examination paper only the journal has already been marked by the state examinations commission this mark will not be adjusted as part of the National standardization process instead the mark for the journal will be combined with the calculated mark to arrive at the final mark for grading the written examination should be treated as a full component and the estimated mark assigned out of 100% in considering the estimated mark for the written paper the teacher may still reflect on the students engagement with the coursework in so much as it will assist with the professional judgment in relation to the estimation of a mark for his or her expected performance in the written examination given that this is the first year for examinations in physical education and computer science teachers will not have data on previous outcomes in these subjects in the school to reflect on and assist with this process in the case of these subjects teachers should refer to the specifications and guidelines for both subjects in particular refer to the assessment section of the specifications and to the quality descriptors in the guidelines and these documents are available on curriculum online as I find earlier the estimate should be for the subject as a whole combining all components into a single estimate and taking account of all the evidence available a broadly similar process for arriving at the estimated mark and rank order applies for the leaving certificate applied as I find earlier given the modular nature of the LCA program students are assessed on the completion of each module therefore as well as providing estimated marks and rank orders for the assessments that could not transact in May for year to session for students schools are also required to provide the same data for year one session to students for a number of subjects and tasks so just to repeat that as well as providing estimated marks and rank orders for the assessments that could not transact in May for a year - which is session for students schools are also required to provide the same data for year one session to students for a number of subjects and tasks other evidence for consideration specific to the ICA program includes key assignments completed for both current and previous sessions in the subject as appropriate given the integrator and cross curricular nature of the program consideration should also be given to how students engaged with and performed in previous modules and tasks relevant to the subject area under consideration for example when considering social education students engagement with and performance in the contemporary issues task which is anchored in this subject may be considered in the case of LCA there are two possible approaches to arriving at an estimated mark and rank order that may be followed firstly it is advised for impossible that the Leaving Certificate applied coordinator undertakes the alignment process with the single subject teacher the coordinator has significant experience with the program requirements and also with the students alternatively complete the process of estimating the marks record during an alignment as a single collective process assisted by the LCA coordinator while schools are providing an estimated percentage mark these will be converted to the appropriate credit allocation in due course when waiting the evidence of subjects with more than one component each component should be given its usual waiting for the leaving certificate applied examination in the case of these subjects a single overall estimated mark for the subject as a whole is required encompassing all of the examination components not a separate mark for each component specific details are on the administration of core subjects modern foreign languages vocational specials and tasks are all outlined in detail in the guide for schools as is subject specific information on core subjects and modern foreign languages vocational specialisms the satisfactory completion of Marge's tasks and delayed tasks from sessions one and trained in this section we will look at the oversight by the principal the principal should review the form be for each subject and each class group to confirm as far as possible in the circumstances that the standard applied by the teachers is fair and appropriate this is of particular importance where there is more than one teacher teaching the subject Formby is reviewed to ensure that there is a consistency of standard across teachers and that the standards are comparable in respect of the estimated percentage mark such consistency of standards across teachers does not mean that the distribution of marks for each class should be the same the principle based on his or her own knowledge of the school along with his or her experience examination outcomes from previous years should be able to judge whether the standards being applied are broadly aligned where it appears that an anomaly or error has arisen the datasets should be returned for further review to the subject alignment group in such circumstances the principal does not have any role in altering a student's estimated mark or rank order his or her role is to return the queried marks or rankings to the subject alignment group for further review you the principal may return the datasets to the subject alignment group for further review if he or she reasonably believes that one or more of the following grounds may apply that there was a procedural flaw in the process up to this point for example a misalignment between the estimated mark and the rank order for a class group that there were unexplained inconsistencies in the datasets submitted following the subject alignment stage but there is a persuasive evidence that a student's estimated mark is inconsistent with the school's information on the students achievement from a range of sources or that there is a lack of objectivity that is bias discrimination or undue influence in the procedure as applied once the process of reviewing the datasets is concluded and the principal is satisfied that the process of alignment and were applicable the review has transacted in good faith in accordance with this guide the form B for each class should be countersigned by the principal and then the process of data submission begins there will be specific guidance for those involved in this process once the final set of estimated marks and rank order for each class are inputted the principal will sign a printout of the final set of data this is to be attached to the relevant form be is will constitute a confirmation that all processes have been completed at the point of submission of data the forms a and forms B should be kept securely in the school until the appeal process has concluded you further information and specific guidance regarding subjects taught outside of the school students new to the school repeat students and new or substitute teachers are outlined in detail in the guide for schools on providing estimated percentage mark and class rank orderings the submission of the data to the department will be facilitated through an application on the easy Neff portal or in the case of SCA through the online system for collection of module credits further guidance on the submission of data to the Department will issue shortly to the management of schools in this part part five we will look at the national standardization by the Department of Education and Skills research makes it clear that because teacher judgments are made in the context of each school they need to be examined and adjusted at a national level to ensure comparability across different schools and that a common national standard is applied for this reason the school source data will be combined with historical data through a process called national standardization in order to generate the calculated grade for the students in the subject this national standardization process will bring the two datasets into alignment with each other and will be used to ensure the calculated grades reflect standards that are properly aligned across schools and with a common national standard the rank order within the task group is preserved in the statistical process however the teachers estimated marks from each school will be adjusted to bring them into line with the expected distribution for the school the National standardization process being used will not impose any predetermined score on any individual in a class or a school if the group of students in school in the current school year is particularly strong the expected level of achievement of the group will reflect us likewise if one or more individual standout is particularly strong that will be reflected in the school's estimated marks and thereby be taken fully into account after the standardization process the calculation marks will be converted into calculated grades and these grades will be issued to candidates the calculator grades will be expressed in the same manner as currently applies to the leaving certificate grades for example higher level grade 1 2 etc it has already been made clear in a guide to calculated grades for leaving certificate 2020 the scope of any appeal of a calculated grade by a student will not encompass a reopening or a challenge to the professional judgments exercised within or by a school incorporating teachers principals and deputy principals in generating the school's estimated percentage marks or class rank orders accordingly no documentation other than the final completed forms a and B and in the case of form C and D the final forms and any supporting documentation will be retained by the school for the purpose of Appeals further information in relation to the appeals process will issue in due course we will now just take a look at some general issues for teachers and principals specific detail is outlined in the guide in a number of key areas which include dealing with confidentiality and data protection issues identifying and addressing actual and perceived conflicts of interest procedures around student-teacher contact and fairness in the calculator grades model the basis of the calculator of grades model and details of the legal indemnity extended teachers principals and school management the guide for schools on providing estimated percentage marks and class rank orderings provides the detail of the areas that we have covered in this video all of the information including frequently asked questions and the guides are available through the weblink Gulf da hai ye forward slash leaving certificate thank you for your attention to this video you