On the 16th August I was taken back to my own A level results day and also to the day of A level results for the twenty-one young women I interviewed for my PhD research. These young women collected their A level results in August 2006 and as one might expect, it was a mixed bag of joy, surprise and disappointment. Of the twenty-one, fifteen took up places at university that year. Some had to retake, others decided to defer their university place, or to reject it altogether. Continue reading “Another August, another A level results day”
A ‘Worrying’ Trend or a Cause for Celebration? Girls’ Exam Success at 16
Once more the gap between girls’ and boys’ GCSE results (taken at 16) has been in the UK news (the results in Scotland were announced earlier in the year and did not attract the same kind of attention). Although it cannot be said that this has been the usual slow news Summer – we have had so far the Norwegian killings, riots and their aftermath in England, uprisings in Libya and Syria, stock market turbulence etc. etc. – this is generally the time of the year when journalists are looking for a story and try to make one up with the publication of the GCSE results. It is also the time of year when straw dogs are set up to be knocked down. In my last post I noted how lone mothers and women teachers were being blamed for the riots. Well they are also being blamed for boys’ relative lower performance compared with girls, although other factors mentioned include over-use of course-work and grade inflation. Continue reading “A ‘Worrying’ Trend or a Cause for Celebration? Girls’ Exam Success at 16”