A-level results 2021: Attainment gap widens for disadvantaged pupils and black students

The gap between pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM), those living with very high levels of disadvantage and black pupils achieving grade A or above and their peers has widened since 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, the report by the government exam regulator states.

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According to the report: "The longstanding gaps indicating lower outcomes of black candidates, FSM candidates, and candidates with a very high level of deprivation relative to their respective reference group, have widened by 1.43, 1.42 and 1.39 percentage points respectively.”

It also shows an increase in the gap for students on free school meals achieving grade C and above at A-level this year, adding that this gap has increased by 1.14 percentage points between 2020 and 2021, and by 1.03 percentage points between 2019 and 2021.

Overall results show that 44.8 per cent of all results handed out today (10 August) were grade A and A* compared with 38.5 per cent of results last year.

This year’s results were based entirely on teacher-assessed grades following a government U-turn on using an algorithm over teachers’ marks last year after the first Covid-19 lockdown.

However, separate research from the Education Policy Institute warns that disadvantaged pupils could be “hit hard” by teacher-assessed marking.

It states: “We know that higher attaining disadvantaged students are particularly likely to be under-predicted compared with the grades they receive based on exams (Murphy and Wyness 2020). 

“Given the use of teacher-assessed grades this year, we may see similar patterns in final awarded grades. As disadvantaged students also lost the most learning on average, this group may well be particularly hard hit this year.”

David Robinson, director of post-16 and skills at the EPI, said: “It is unsurprising that we’ve seen considerably higher grades among students. Limited controls, a lot of flexibility on what could be included towards assessment evidence, and students often being given the benefit of the doubt, have all contributed towards this rise seen today.  

“More of a concern than increases is the fact that some groups of students will have lost out from inconsistencies in grading. But greater still is the problem of pupil learning loss caused by the pandemic, which will have been masked by these higher grades.

“The focus now needs to be on giving maximum support to students to ensure that they progress into their next destination, whether that’s in education, training or employment."

Responding to today’s results, Carole Willis, chief executive of the National Foundation for Educational Research, said: “Young people receiving their A-Level results today have been through an unprecedented period of disruption over the last two years.

“These results are the outcome of incredible levels of determination and tenacity from teachers, pupils and parents.

“It is essential that this cohort of young people is supported to plug the gaps of any missed learning and to make successful transitions to the next stages of their education or employment career.”