BiasHigh
UK Ofqual's Algorithm Disproportionately Provided Lower Grades Than Teachers' Assessments
- Occurred
- Aug 13, 2020
- Published
- Jun 20, 2022
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
UK Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual)'s grade-standardization algorithm providing predicted grades for A level and GCSE qualifications in the UK, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland was reportedly giving grades lower than teachers' assessments, and disproportionately for state schools.
Developers
- UK Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation
Deployers
- UK Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation
Harmed parties
- underprivileged pupils
- Students
- pupils in state schools
- GCSE pupils
- Epistemic integrity
- Educational communities
- A-level pupils
Classification
Category confidence: 90%
Severity confidence: 85%
Rationale: Algorithmic grading system produced discriminatory outcomes against state schools, triggering regulatory scrutiny and public controversy.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8