A structured discussion of the fairness of GCSE and A level grades in England in summer 2020 and 2021

In England, examinations for general qualifications (GCSE, AS and A level) were cancelled in summer 2020 and summer 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and replaced with contingency measures involving teacher judgements. For summer 2020, the intention was to calculate grades using rankings provided by centres, prior attainment data for the current learners and performance data for centres’ candidates in previous years. This approach was later abandoned, and 'centre assessment grades' were issued instead (except where calculated grades were higher). For summer 2021, 'teacher-assessed grades' were awarded to learners. These drastically different to usual approaches to the assessment of high-stakes qualifications raised debate about fairness. This article discusses evidence that can inform judgements about the fairness of these grades, using an existing framework of different ‘senses’ of fairness to provide a structure. In this way, we judged how fair grades were in each sense compared to prior years for each of the approaches used (or nearly used) in summer 2020 and 2021. The analysis highlights tensions in the prioritisation of different aspects of fairness in the unusual circumstances of the pandemic.