Teachers felt guilty about marking students' work during calculated grades process

Almost four out of 10 (38%) admitted they found it difficult to maintain an unbiased position during the process, despite guidelines from the Department of Education. File picture

Teachers report feeling guilty about the marking and ranking they gave their students during the Leaving Cert calculated process in 2020, the first time teachers here graded their own students.

Almost a third (32%) of surveyed teachers reported feeling guilty about the marking and ranking they assigned their students after the terminal State exams were canceled due to covid-19 restrictions.

Almost four out of 10 (38%) admitted they found it difficult to maintain an unbiased position during the process, despite guidelines from the Department of Education. Nearly a quarter (23%) of teachers surveyed also reported finding it hard to voice their concerns about how colleagues arrived at their marks.

The details are included in a new study from the Institute of Education at Dublin City University published in Irish Educational Studies which examined the role of teachers as assessors through a survey with more than 710 post-primary teachers and a small focus group.

In the summer of 2020, then Minister for Education Joe McHugh announced the Leaving Cert exams would be postponed until November 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic. The calculated grades process was devised as a means to allow sixth-year students to progress to third-level education in the meantime and involved teachers assessing and ranking their own students. 

Teachers of the same subject then attended an 'alignment meeting' to ensure that all teachers were applying consistently with each other. These marks were then combined with a process called national standardisation, applied by the Department of Education. 

Researcher Dr Audrey Doyle noted that the calculated grades process here challenged “teachers in their personal, professional, and political identity, and it created a space where teachers’ feelings and beliefs oscillated between holding on to the traditional assessment approach and engaging in new possibilities of assessment reform.”

Approximately one-third of teachers included in the study had a positive response about their feelings on being an assessor during the process, and in contemplating future assessment reform. 

Role of teachers

"However, there are approximately two-thirds of teachers who are not so positively disposed," the study noted. The majority (87%) expressed confidence in their professionalism during the calculated grades process, and a further 71% reported feeling good about the marking and ranking decisions they made. 

More than half (53%) disagreed that they feel more supportive of efforts being made to reform the Leaving Cert programme and examination. The majority of surveyed teachers (81%) said the calculated grades process created stress, with 73% reporting feeling uncomfortable at the prospect of their students learning how they ranked them. 

Those who took part in the focus groups suggested the reason for this may be due to the "value placed on the importance of the role of the teacher as advocate for their students."  

The relationship between student and teacher was highlighted as being the most important value to the teacher, the study noted, with one teacher telling the study "we have that emotional attachment to these kids" that they did not want to change.