Current Events > Girl in UK wrote dystopian story that came true and she experienced it in the UK

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/18/ashton-a-level-student-predicted-results-fiasco-in-prize-winning-story-jessica-johnson-ashton

An 18-year-old student who predicted this years A-level results crisis in an award-winning dystopian story about an algorithm deciding school grades according to social class, has had her own results downgraded.
Ive fallen into my story. Its crazy, said Jessica Johnson, a student at Ashton Sixth Form College in Greater Manchester. I based it on the educational inequality I already saw. I just exaggerated that inequality and added the algorithm. But I really didnt think it would come true as quick as it did!

Johnson won an Orwell youth prize senior award in 2019 for her short story titled A Band Apart, which was the first one she had written. Set in 2029, it imagined a system where students were sorted into bands based on their background. Mum still thinks I can be a doctor. She doesnt understand how hard it is to get into Band 1 for people like us, says a character in the story.

Johnson had her English A-level result downgraded from A to B and lost her place at the University of St Andrews before the governments U-turn on Monday. Now that results will be based on teacher assessments instead, she is hopeful that her place will be restored.

Ive been so stressed and anxious these past few days, waiting to hear back from universities, she said. We got told you can go wherever you want in life if you work hard enough, but weve seen this year that no matter how hard you worked, you got given a grade based on where you live.
Prof Jean Seaton, director of the Orwell prize, said: Jessica saw into the heart of what the system represents and her story demonstrates the human ability which exams only exist to uncover.

Shit's fucked.

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The article is very vague about why exactly her grade went down.

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Come to the US where your college doesn't actually matter when applying for jobs.

darkphoenix181 posted...

an algorithm deciding school grades according to social class

KainWind posted...

The article is very vague about why exactly her grade went down.

Yeah that's what her dystopian story was about. The actual policy that happened to her isn't described well.

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KainWind posted...

Yeah that's what her dystopian story was about. The actual policy that happened to her isn't described well.

Article said she wound up in her own story. So how different is what happened?

https://bit.ly/3hn1DEj
cbc.ca link ^

"When the pandemic shut down schools in the U.K. this year, students missed their final exams.
To calculate students' A-level results the criteria used for university placement schools turned to a computer algorithm created by a company called Ofqual.

That algorithm takes several factors into consideration when calculating a student's grade, including the grade their teacher predicted they were likely to receive, the students' own previous performance, and their school's historic results.

Many students and critics have pointed out that the algorithm exacerbates existing inequalities in the U.K. "

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Dragon239 posted...

https://bit.ly/3hn1DEj
cbc.ca link ^

"When the pandemic shut down schools in the U.K. this year, students missed their final exams.
To calculate students' A-level results the criteria used for university placement schools turned to a computer algorithm created by a company called Ofqual.

That algorithm takes several factors into consideration when calculating a student's grade, including the grade their teacher predicted they were likely to receive, the students' own previous performance, and their school's historic results.

Many students and critics have pointed out that the algorithm exacerbates existing inequalities in the U.K. "

Thank you, the process makes more sense now.

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Wow @ people trying to defend the algorithm
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Why on earth our government thought this would be a good idea I really don't know.

But then again, they've never given a single fuck for anyone, save their rich friends and have a rich history with fucking over anyone save the elites so this is pretty standard for them.

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Reality is stranger than fiction.

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