Education CommitteeFurther written evidence submitted by OCR (Annex B)
A brief description of the data you share with Ofqual about A level and GCSE grading, the timing of this and an indication of whether it is publicly available or not.
During the summer awarding session, weekly teleconferences are held between the JCQ awarding organisations and the regulator. Prior to these meetings, data for awards that have been completed are sent to the regulator, and copied to other JCQ awarding organisations. These data are provisional, and are not publicly available.
By a given date in August, all awarding outcomes are sent to the regulator, and copied to other JCQ awarding organisations. Face to face meetings (or occasionally teleconferences) are held for GCE and GCSE separately at which the outcomes are discussed.
The data for each specification are sent in two formats: full award outcomes for all candidates; and outcomes for those candidates for which we have predictions. At GCE predictions are based on the relationship between mean GCSE score and A level performance; whilst for GCSE they are based on the relationship between mean KS2 score and GCSE performance. The second format always contains fewer candidates than the first, as not all candidates can be matched to their prior attainment (be that KS2 or GCSE).
In the autumn, a post-hoc screening analysis is undertaken. It is similar to the predictions used for awarding, but is based on the actual outcomes from the summer series, rather than from a previous series (ie a year before). The other difference is that the GCSE outcomes are measured against mean GCSE, not mean KS2. These were shared with the regulator in 2011.
There are also other occasions when data are shared with the regulator, such as data required for investigative work (eg the ABDA work), or when proposals are made to change the Code of Practice that may impact on grade outcomes. In such circumstances, the regulator will want to see the impact of any changes that are proposed. This would not be publicly available.
March 2012