...country
The issues addressed in this document appear to be most acute in England and Wales, and it is from these two countries that most data in this report are taken.
...understand
Things may never have been good, but we are bound to report (and are reluctantly convinced by) consistent evidence from many quarters of a genuine qualitative change in the last decade. The extent of the phenomenon makes it difficult to summarise this evidence. Something of the spirit was conveyed by one lecturer in engineering mathematics who observed: ``Students have always made mistakes such as replacing by . The difference is that now, when I try to correct them, they do not believe me and there seems to be no way of convincing them. Some even insist that I must be wrong and they are right.''
...students
It is therefore regrettable that, despite these obvious weaknesses, two such findings have been used repeatedly and selectively by officials to argue that ``there is no evidence of any decline''. We shall return to this in Section 8.
...them
For this, and other reasons, we should treat with great caution certain recently publicised claims that A-level standards have been maintained, or have risen, in recent years.
...percentages
Strict comparability is impossible because of the recent introduction of modular A-level schemes. These, because of their structure, effectively discount many of those who would previously be deemed to have failed the course.
...grades
One is thus less surprised than one should be to read (IMA (1995) [16]) of Hong Kong universities which now adopt the exchange rate: 1 Hong Kong A-level point is equivalent to 1.67 UK A-level points.
...assessment.
Despite this perception from higher education, officials have repeatedly claimed that ``what little evidence there is'' indicates that standards may even have improved. We have examined the evidence on which this claim is based (and the more significant evidence which it ignores) and we cannot attach any weight to the claim.
...present?
Students who in 1992 had obtained a B Grade in GCSE mathematics, had a median grade of D in the 1994 A-level examinations; for those with a C Grade the median grade was E (see Appendix E --- and note the large numbers who failed to pass).
...studies?
This is an important question especially since over 90% of those with two A-levels now proceed to higher education (Smithers and Robinson (1995) [26] p7).
...Baccalauréat
Important structural changes to the Baccalauréat, affecting the teaching of mathematics, were implemented in 1995.
...AS-levels
It is unclear from published data how many of the entries for AS mathematics:
a)
took it as a sole mathematics qualification,
b)
gained it en route to A-level by studying a subset of the A-level course, or
c)
took it in addition to an A-level course (a growing use of AS not mentioned in Dearing (1995) [7]).
...well-qualified
`Well-qualified' is not easy to define, in terms of official statistics. In the figures from 1977, we are using what Cockcroft (1982) calls a `good' qualification: this includes all trained teachers having a degree with mathematics as main subject, and some with subsidiary mathematics in their degrees.

Tackling the mathematics problem
LMS/IMA/RSS
October 1995
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