News | 19 February 2025
IES welcomes proposal for new grading system
Integrity in grading is at the top of the agenda in Internationella Engelska Skolan's quality work. IES welcomes proposals that aim to further strengthen grading integrity. On Wednesday, 19 February, investigator Magnus Henrekson submitted the white paper "A fair grading system" to the government.
The government asked for the white paper into equitable grades and merit values to obtain proposals for changes in the grading and average qualification level (meritvärde) systems in compulsory and upper secondary schools, so that these better reflect students' subject knowledge and prevent grade inflation.
The proposal would mean that the sharp grade boundary between pass and fail is removed, replaced by a ten step grade scale, where grades one to three would indicate a less acceptable level of knowledge, four to five acceptable knowledge, six to seven good knowledge, eight to nine very good knowledge and 10 excellent knowledge. In addition, the final grades would be calibrated through national final tests.
Annakarin Johansson Sandman, head of academics at Internationella Engelska Skolan, said: "The white paper's approach and proposals are in line with IES's conviction that knowledge is measurable and that it is possible to enable correct and equitable grades to be set.
"Ultimately, teachers will implement the proposals that the government will hopefully pursue, and this will be a delicate task. It will be absolutely crucial that they receive the right conditions, support and training, as grading is a form of authority exercised by each individual teacher. I look forward to reading the more than a thousand page white paper, and getting into the details."
Within IES, grading is continuously evaluated, compared and analysed in each school, including with the help of our own statistics dashboard. To facilitate teachers' work and ensure equitable grading, a process for joint assessment has also been set up between subject teachers in IES schools, which has resulted in a higher consistency between national tests and final grades in IES schools compared with the national average.
The figures show alignment between students’ national tests results and final grades. Percentage of students who received lower/equal/higher final grades than results on the national tests. The higher the figure for "Equal", the greater the alignment.