The government’s A-level grading algorithm may bias against state schools.
In 2020 A-level results, Independent schools saw a 4.7% increase in A* and A grades. Non-Independent schools saw only a 1.7% increase. The bias could be driven by the Government’s “prior attainment” adjustment. Our analysis suggests, that state schools which saw a relatively poor GCSE performance two-years ago may have had their grade distributions revised downwards by too much.