The latest Made-in-Britain Tory political scandal is the "fuck the algorithm" A-level grades omnishambles, in which the Conservative party deployed a black-box algorithm to give rich students higher grades and poor students lower ones.
https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/18/fifth-pig/#a-levels
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https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/18/fifth-pig/#a-levels
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This has resulted in many students who'd been offered places in universities having those offers rescinded based on their "disappointing" final grades.
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Among the students who lost their places is Jessica Johnson, a young writer whose literary achievements include winning coveted Orwell youth prize for dystopian tales, for a story called "A Band Apart"
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-youth-prize/2018-youth-prize/previous-winners-youth/2019-winners/a-band-apart-jessica-johnson/
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https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-youth-prize/2018-youth-prize/previous-winners-youth/2019-winners/a-band-apart-jessica-johnson/
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The story is a chilling dystopian tale of students whose class disadvantages are magnified by an unaccountable algorithm that empiricism-launders the privilege of the wealthy by claiming that its judgments are "meritocratic."
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Johnson had been offered a place at St Andrew’s University, but that offer was withdrawn after the Tories' algorithm lowered her grade.
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She told The @Guardian that she hopes that the Tories' U-turn on algorithmic grade-adjusments means she'll get to go to university after all.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/18/ashton-a-level-student-predicted-results-fiasco-in-prize-winning-story-jessica-johnson-ashton
You cannot make this shit up.
Image: Jessica Johnson
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https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/18/ashton-a-level-student-predicted-results-fiasco-in-prize-winning-story-jessica-johnson-ashton
You cannot make this shit up.
Image: Jessica Johnson
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