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Leaving Certificate 2020: Your questions answered - May 2020
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The latest questions and answers are available here.
This information will be updated when the Calculated Grades are released on 7 September so be sure to check back at that time.
The below questions and answers were prepared following the announcement on 8 May that the Leaving Certificate 2020 examinations previously scheduled for 29 July were being postponed, and that students would be offered the option of receiving Calculated Grades for the subjects they were studying, with the opportunity to sit the 2020 Leaving Certificate examinations at a date in the future when it would be safe to hold them.
Answers to the below questions were last updated on 25 June and are no longer being updated. Some of the information below may be out of date. For the most recent information regarding Calculated Grades see Leaving Certificate 2020.
The 2020 Leaving Certificate written examinations previously rescheduled to start on 29 July have been postponed. Students will now be offered Calculated Grades. They will also have the opportunity to sit the exams at a later stage when it is safe to do so.
After detailed consideration, it is the department’s firm assessment that running the exams poses too great a risk to students, their families and those involved in running them.
The logistics of holding the exams, with all the precautions that would have to be put in place to prevent the risk of further infection, would mean that they would not be held under normal conditions.
Yes. All students will be given the option to receive a State Certificate of Calculated Grades in each subject. It will have the same status as Leaving Certificates awarded to students in previous years.
Students will also have the opportunity to sit the Leaving Certificate examination if they wish at a time when it is safe and practicable to do so.
Many different scenarios were considered over a number of weeks, each with their flaws and faults.
There is no perfect solution to this unprecedented challenge.
Online exams; shortened papers; fewer examinations – none of these options would have been as fair an assessment as the Calculated Grades model. They would also have been markedly/significantly different from previous Leaving Certificate examinations and from what students and their teachers are familiar with and have been preparing for in terms of structure, format and content, over the past two years.
Changes like those would have called into question the validity of the state examinations this year.
There will be only one sitting of the 2020 Leaving Certificate Examination for the 2020 examinations.
The SEC will be working on the detailed arrangements for these examinations, guided of course by health advice.
Where students opt to sit the Leaving Certificate examination at a later stage when it is safe to do so the examination fee will be waived. Anyone who has paid already will be refunded.
As of 11 May 2020, tuition (whether online or in other ways) ceased for sixth-year leaving certificate students. This applies to the Leaving Certificate established, Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) and Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP).
No additional work is being accepted from students from this date. Teachers and students may not discuss the student’s achievement in the subject over the past two years. Nor can they discuss the student’s ranking in a class, or their estimated mark or the level at which an estimated mark is to be provided in a subject.
However, students remain students of the school until the end of the school term on 29 May. In terms of the school’s role in supporting the wellbeing of Leaving Certificate students, the role of the Student Support Team as set out in the guidance issued recently to schools, should remain available until the end of the school term. You can access links to the supports provided by the National Education Psychological Service (NEPS) here.
Protocol for Guidance Counsellors and members of the Student Support Team
Schools continue to play an important role in supporting the wellbeing of Leaving Certificate students.
They remain students of the school until the end of the school term, 29 May 2020, and the role of the Student Support Team, as set out in guidance issued recently to schools, should remain available until this time.
Guidance Counsellors are permitted to continue to provide guidance counselling support to 6th year students (1:1 and small group work). This may be provided to students wishing to discuss their social personal, education and career concerns.
However, In advance of any planned interaction with students a clear statement must be communicated to students and parents/guardians that the guidance counsellor will not be engaging in discussions regarding the calculated grading process or potential marks awarded by teachers. Guidance Counsellors, teachers and students may not discuss the student’s achievement in the subject over the past two years. Nor can they discuss the student’s ranking in a class, or their estimated mark or the level at which an estimated mark is to be provided in a subject.
All conversations between Leaving Certificate students and members of the School’s Student Support Team, during this time, need to be prefaced with a statement such as the following:
"As part of our conversation today we are prohibited from having any discussion about student achievement over the past 2 years, student ranking in a class, student’s estimated mark or the level an estimated mark is to be provided in a subject. If our conversation strays into speaking about any of these matters, our meeting will have to cease immediately”.
Calculated Grades will be generated using a systematic statistical model. It will combine estimates of a student’s expected performance in a subject and level, with information about how students in this school have fared in this subject in recent years in line with national performance standards over time.
The statistical process will take account of the fact that the particular group of students in the school in 2020 may be stronger or weaker than in previous years, and will also allow for the fact that particular individuals within those groups might have levels of achievement that vary considerably from what has previously been seen in the school.
The first source of data will be provided by the subject teacher. It will then be aligned in the school, with teachers reflecting on and considering the marks to ensure that the process is correctly applied. The principal then reviews to assure that the process was correctly applied and that all students were treated fairly. The school then sends the data to the Department of Education and Skills.
The calculated grades model developed by the department cannot ensure fairness if statistical or algorithmic models – such as those offered by commercial companies – are used in the course of generating data at school level. Schools have been asked to avoid their use.
A separate document explains further how the system will work.
A more detailed Guide for Schools on Providing Estimated Percentage Marks and Class Rank Orderings has also been provided.
There will be strong oversight and control and a number of inherent quality assurance measures to ensure students receive a fair result.
LCA students have already completed a lot of their assessments. These results are already held by the students. Calculated grades will be used for outstanding assessments, including subjects, vocational specialisms and tasks due to be completed in the current LCA session.
Students will be provided with a calculated grade for the LCVP Link Modules.
Teachers will be asked to provide an estimated percentage mark for each student for each subject. Students will also be put in a rank order in their class.
Teachers are being asked to use draw on existing records and available evidence, to provide a fair, reasonable and carefully considered judgement of the most likely percentage mark that each student would have achieved if they had sat their examinations and completed coursework under normal conditions.
Teachers will NOT be simply passing on results from mock examinations or other tests.
Schools will then align this data before it is signed off and passed on to the Department of Education and Skills.
Teachers will use a number of records of a student’s performance and progress; for example, classwork and homework; class assessments; examinations in school, at Christmas or summer, mock exams and also coursework.
No. Junior Cycle results are not being used at an individual student level. They are only being used at a group level as part of the process of standardising across schools.
If a teacher has a real or perceived conflict of interest with a student in their class they must declare this to the school principal.
There will be additional oversight by a nominated teacher and a deputy principal in such cases.
No. It is the fairest way possible to tackle the effects that lack of schooling and other problems caused by Covid-19 can be ameliorated for ALL candidates.
Students have had a very broken schooling experience - some have had access to schooling through online learning, others haven’t.
An exam held under current health restrictions would be greatly different to the examination that students expected and SEC has advised it would not be reliable or fair to students.
The model uses the best information we have about students’ achievements by asking teachers to review several pieces of information about their work over the last two years. Teachers have to keep a record of the evidence that they used to come to the estimated mark and ranking.
Several checks are built in at school level:
- Teachers must share their rankings and students’ estimated marks with their fellow teachers before they are provided to the principal
- Principal oversees the process and submits the rankings and marks to the department AND can refer any marks or rankings back to the relevant group of teachers for re-consideration, if needed
- National standardisation ensures that students are treated equitably across the country
- An appeals process is available involving several checks and of course, if they prefer, candidates will be able to take the examination when it is safe to do so.
Students will be able to access on online system on the gov.ie website and will be asked to confirm the subject levels at which they initially entered for the examinations, or to change to a lower level. Once this process is completed, the department will confirm the levels of entry for each student back to the school, and the principal/deputy principal will relay this onwards to the teachers.
Formative assessment is when either formal or informal procedures are used to gather evidence of a student’s learning during the learning process, and used to adapt teaching to meet the student’s needs. The process allows teachers and students to collect information about a student’s progress and to suggest adjustments to the approach to instruction and learning.
Summative assessment is used to evaluate student learning at the end of a course or term or year. Its purpose is to summarise the students’ achievements and to determine whether and to what degree they have demonstrated understanding of that learning.
Subject teachers will be asked to estimate the percentage mark that they consider each student in their class is most likely to have achieved, had they sat a Leaving Certificate examination in 2020 as normal.
This estimated mark is a single combined mark for all components of the examination (written, oral, aural, practical, and coursework), with each component contributing its normal weighting. (There is an exception in the case of Home Economics).
Most estimated percentage marks will likely be given as whole numbers. However, teachers in some cases may use a decimal number between two percentage marks, that is, marking out of 1,000.
School should not retain documentation for any longer than is needed. Schools will be required to complete a series of forms in respect of students and classes for return to the department as part of the Calculated Grades process.
In cases where a student is taking an additional subject outside of the school, there are other forms and in that case the school might decide to retain some other documentation about the situation if they think it necessary.
The school principal will be required to hold copies of these forms until the school has been notified that all stages of the appeals process have been completed.
After the issue of the provisional results, students will have access to their estimated percentage mark and the rank order provided to them in each subject.
As teachers and school leaders will be implementing the calculated grades process in schools on behalf of the Minister, arrangements have been put in place to extend a State indemnity to them and to the boards of management of their schools. The indemnity could be invoked where someone is sued in their own capacity (that is, named in civil proceedings as an individual teacher, principal or board of management/ETB).
This indemnity will be subject to conditions around notification and cooperation with the State in defending any legal cases should they arise and will only be capable of being invoked where a person has acted bona fide, that is, has made every reasonable effort to carry out their role in accordance with the guidance provided in this Guide and the relevant circular of the Department of Education and Skills.
In the first instance the teacher or principal will tell the person to stop.
Where the attempt to contact or engage in discussion persists, the teacher or staff member must report this contact immediately to the principal of the school and provide the principal with a written record of the contact or attempted contact.
That record will be maintained by the principal until the conclusion of any potential review or appeal process associated with the awarding of the candidate’s calculated grades.
The principal must also notify the department as soon as is practicable that the school has a record of a contact by a person in respect of the marks or ranking to be assigned to a named student.
The role of the Examinations Aide in the calculated grades process will build on a role that exists in the normal Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate exams processes. The Aide, usually a member of the teaching staff in the school, will assist the school principal in administering the calculated grades model. The arrangements for the appointment of the Examinations Aide are a matter for school authorities and a separate circular will be issued setting out details.
Where any reasonable accommodation has been approved by the SEC for any student, such as a reader or scribe, schools will be asked to base their estimate of the student’s likely performance on the assumption that this accommodation would have been available.
After the estimated percentage marks and rankings are received from all schools, the department will analyse them and carry out a process of national standardisation.
We will compare information about how students in this school have fared in this subject at Leaving Certificate over the past three years to the national standard. We will also review the performance of this year’s group of students against their overall performance at Junior Cycle.
This then allows us to check whether the estimated percentage marks in each subject from the school are reasonable, in light of performance in that subject in recent years. Therefore, any alignment of marks upwards or downwards will be based on more than one single piece of information.
The calculated grade system depends on the differences in expected achievement between students being accurately reflected in the school-based data. For example, if there is a student in a class group who performs better than the other students in the class group then this difference should be reflected in the estimated percentage marks assigned by the school.
We expect that many estimated marks may change, to at least some degree. Although some will change more than others depending on the quality of the data we receive from schools.
The rank ordering of students by the school in their class grouping will be retained in the process, so students will keep their position relative to each other.
After this standardisation and all follow-on checks have been completed, the estimated mark supplied by the school is transformed into a calculated mark. We then use this to generate a calculated grade.
No, the national standardisation process does not favour any type of student or school. The most important information about each student is the estimated marks and ranking that the school provides to the department. The national standardisation process just serves to make sure that your school has not been too harsh or too lenient when giving estimated scores to the department.
We expect it to be quite common that the estimated marks in one subject from a school will need to be moved up and the marks in another subject from the same school will need to be moved down.
If you are a particularly strong candidate in your class, and the information provided by the school reflects this then you will still emerge as a particularly strong candidate. The process will ensure that your calculated score will be as close to what you would have achieved in the examinations as it is possible to calculate.
The statistical process we are using will not impose any predetermined score on any individual in a class or a school.
The process of standardisation will be independently checked by external experts to make sure that it operates fairly for all candidates and all schools.
Yes. Students will have access to the school-based data shortly after the issue of the results of the Calculated Grades.
In the detailed guidance that we have provided to schools and teachers we have made it very clear that schools should not disclose the estimated marks or rank orders to students or to their parents/guardians.
The plan is that calculated grades will be provided to candidates as close as possible to the normal results day.
Yes. Students will receive a provisional statement of results with grades in the same format as every other year.
Subsequently students will receive a formal final certificate confirming the grades.
Students’ calculated grades will be transferred directly to the CAO, in the same way that examination results usually are. The CAO timelines will run as close as possible to normal to allow for students to take up offers and to transition to third level, further education or work and so on.
The department has been in contact with counterparts in the UK and across the EU to explain the position regarding the Leaving Certificate. Other countries are being asked for as much flexibility as possible for our students. These contacts are continuing. This is also a common challenge in the UK and across the EU.
While we can’t be specific about that yet, it will be late September or early October. Third level institutions are in constant contact with the department on a range of issues in relation to enrolments and courses for the 2020/2021 academic year.
Yes. In these exceptional circumstances, all of the results issued on foot of the examinations this year, calculated grades; appeals and the later examination sitting will be considered the results of the 2020 Leaving Certificate.
However, it is not possible to mix Leaving Certificate results from different years for CAO points purposes. Students can repeat a subject or subjects in order to fulfil minimum subject entry requirements for college.
All reasonable efforts will be made to provide students with a calculated grade.
In the case of students taking a subject outside school, the detailed guidance for schools published on 21 May provides details of how schools should proceed if school management authorities are confident that there is sufficient evidence of the student’s achievement to make an objective judgement.
For students in receipt of home tuition with an association to the school, the guidance published on 21 May will provide information for school authorities to engage with the home tutor in arriving at a decision.
In cases where it is not possible to provide a calculated grade candidates will have the option to sit the examinations at a later date when it is safe to hold them.
37. I am repeating one subject outside of school because I want to satisfy a minimum entry requirement for a college place or I sat my Leaving Certificate in 2019 but am repeating Irish because I want to fulfil the minimum entry requirement for entry to a primary teacher education programme. How will I do that with the calculated grades model?
Where a student is not connected to a school and is studying one or more subjects independently, the department will look at such situations on a case by case basis and will be flexible in accepting estimated marks and rankings. Every effort will be made to provide an estimated mark where there is sufficient credible evidence of the student’s achievement. Students will be able to use this calculated grade in the same way as a Leaving Certificate grade to satisfy minimum entry requirements.
Where it is not possible to provide a calculated grade students will have the opportunity to sit the 2020 Leaving Certificate examination at a later date when it is safe to do so.
A separate process exists for out-of-school learners who may be studying one or more subjects outside of school or private college recognised by the State Examinations Commission for the purposes of holding examinations. Please see A Guide to Calculated Grades for Out-of-School Learners for comprehensive guidance on this process for applying to be considered for calculated grades.
No. Students attending a school and studying one or more subjects outside of school are catered for in the school-based process. The school, in conjunction with the tutor, may provide an estimated percentage mark for those subjects studied outside of school.
If the school is unable to provide an estimated percentage mark for a subject studied outside of school, they must complete a form D and submit it to the Calculated Grades Executive Office.
No additional information should be submitted with the Application to be considered for a Calculated Grade by out-of-school learners . Any such documentation will be returned unopened.
Yes. If you sat the Leaving Certificate previously and are repeating a subject while studying independently, you should complete the student Application to be considered for a Calculated Grade by out-of-school learners and return it to the Calculated Grades Executive Office.
You should have already confirmed the levels for each of your subjects on the student portal however, if you confirmed a subject at higher level in error, you may now change to lower level by indicating this on the Application to be considered for a Calculated Grade by out-of-school learners. You cannot however, change to a level higher than that which you originally entered.
The application form must be submitted in hard copy with your original signature. Electronically submitted forms will not be accepted.
Application to be considered for a Calculated Grade by out-of-school learners
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Yes you can. Due to the nature of the model, however, the professional judgment of the teacher or the school will not form part of the appeals process.
Students unhappy with the calculated grade they receive will have access to a three-stage appeals process.
- Stage 1: Checks will be undertaken to ensure that the data was recorded correctly by the school and that it was transferred correctly into the data collection system.
- Stage 2: There will also be a review to ensure that the data was correctly received and processed in the calculated grade model.
- Stage 3: If the student remains unhappy with the outcome after stages 1 and 2 he/she can seek a review by Independent Appeal Scrutineers.
If students are dissatisfied with the outcome of this review, there will be an opportunity to sit the examinations at a later stage when it is safe and practicable to do so.
In addition, there will be oversight by an independent expert unconnected with the design of the calculated grades model to provide overall validation on the model, including the operation of the appeals system.
Work is ongoing with the higher education sector to integrate the timing of the first stage of the appeals process with the start date for college entry.
Students who receive an upgraded CAO place following Stage 1 of the appeals process may be able to take up their place in the 2020/2021 academic year.
Students who are successful at the Independent Appeal Scrutineer stage, and who receive an improved CAO offer at that stage, will receive a deferred offer to start their course in the 2021/22 academic year.
Students who opt to sit the Leaving Certificate examinations at a later stage when it is safe to do so, and who receive an improved CAO offer on foot of these results, will also receive a deferred college offer to start their course in the 2021/22 academic year. If a candidate who has started first year of a course becomes entitled to a higher CAO offer and chooses to accept same in the following academic year, attendance for the first year on the new course would remain eligible for free fees and SUSI funding as appropriate.