GCSE results are out and Number 3 Son gets 3 ‘A’s, 4 ‘B’s and some assorted ‘D’s.  So... no A* then?

A* - what’s that about anyway?  The simple answer is that ‘too many’ pupils are achieving the top grade. At one time a simple grade ‘A ‘was enough to identify the highest achievers. However the number of pupils achieving this grade has steadily increased over the years. Whether this grade inflation is due to ‘dumbing down’ or not is beside the point – it’s there, for whatever reason, and we have to take it into consideration.  So, in order to identify ‘the best of the best’ a ‘Beyond ‘A’ Grade’ was introduced, the coveted A*; first at GCSE and now, for the first time, at A-level.

The introduction of A* at A-level begs a question; why extend the range of pass grades in order to differentiate pupils, rather than simply increasing the rigour of the test and leaving the grades as they are? The effect, in terms of differentiation, is exactly the same. The difference, however, is that in the former case the less able can still ‘pass’ and in the latter they may ‘fail’ - and there are two good reasons why the latter cannot happen: firstly, a reduction in the pass rate would be political suicide for any government these days.  Secondly, I believe it is a manifestation of a particular syndrome we have in schools at the moment; that of not permitting pupils to experience failure – of any sort.

Currently there is a gap between what students at the secondary and post-secondary levels are learning about human rights violations, and what is being done to stop them. Many humanities’ classes and curricula have genocide and human rights as a unit, but assess their students using traditional assessments.

In 2008-2009 a group of students in Mr. Juliani’s 10th Grade English class asked the question, “Why do we learn about all of this stuff (genocide and human rights violations), but never do anything about it?” This question sparked an idea and Project: Global Inform (PGI) was created. The students picked their own groups and researched current human rights violations. Each group picked a violation they felt particularly passionate about and began to develop an action plan. Their action plans allowed the students to judge how effective each method of media was at spreading information and creating awareness. At the end of Project: Global Inform’s first run, hundreds of people had been met face-to-face with information they did not know, while thousands of other teens and young adults saw videos, visited websites, and became Twitter and Facebook fans of media meant to create awareness.