England scraps Ofqual's exam-grading algorithm after it downgraded 39% of teacher assessments

England's exams regulator scrapped the algorithm it used to assign A-level and GCSE grades after it downgraded 39% of teacher assessments, prompting protests outside Downing Street and an urgent review by the national statistics regulator.

The warnings ran for months. In May, consultation respondents flagged that "some arbitrary algorithm [is] making standardised adjustments" and that Black and minority ethnic students would be hit hardest. In July, a former Department for Education director general told the education secretary the model would be 75% accurate at best, and external advisers told Ofqual the formula was "volatile" and risked erratic outcomes. MPs warned pupils risked being "systematically disadvantaged by calculated grades" and asked Ofqual to publish the model; Ofqual refused, saying publication would let schools work out their own awarded grades. An adviser who reportedly helped develop the software told the Daily Mail there was "always an understanding there would be winners and losers … there was a very specific point when it became doomed."