North East leaders have voiced fears that controversial measures used to grade A Level students in the absence of exams have left the region at a disadvantage.
With exams cancelled due to coronavirus, this year's grades were calculated based on teacher predictions and an exam board algorithm based in part on schools' previous performance.
But many claimed the system was unfair to high-achieving students from disadvantaged areas as teachers' grades were slashed.
Across the country, exam boards downgraded 39.1% of the exam grades teachers said they thought their students should receive. Missing out on their predicted grades meant some were left with their offer of university places in doubt.
And despite a slight increase in the overall number of in A*-C grades in the region, the 1.7% rise in the number of students gaining these grades was the smallest in the country.
The North East continues to have one of the lowest rates of top A and A* grades in the country, standing seventh out of nine regions.
Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah said she had been "overwhelmed" by similar complaints from parents and students in Newcastle, whose predicted marks had been cut by up to three grades - despite exams regulator Ofqual saying it expected the "overwhelming majority" of grades to be within one point of the teacher's prediction.
She wrote to the Prime Minister about the system, which she said "takes no account of individual achievement".
She added: "Students are in tears and parents angry, Government confusion and lack of leadership once again hurting the least privileged amongst us.
"One clear example is in physics where after so much hard work to widen and improve participation, the Ofqual algorithm takes no account of improvements, crushing many young women's hopes of STEM careers. This is also a blow for our future economy and we risk long term damage to the next generation of Geordies.”
Students were this year able to appeal to have mock exam grades counted, but only if exam boards could verify that the mocks met certain conditions.
Behind the headline-grabbing statistic of almost 40% of results downgraded were individual heart-wrenching disappointments.
Among them was Chloe Ray, 18, of Sacred Heart Sixth Form in Newcastle, whose predicted A in physics was slashed to a D.
Anita Bath, head of Sacred Heart, said she was "immensely disappointed in how this algorithm has so negatively impacted the lives of our hardworking students" and slammed the "flawed methodology that does not value evidence and teacher judgement".
Chris Zarraga, director of regional education network Schools North East, said ministers had had "months" to create a fair system of moderation, but hadn't succeeded.
He said: "While it is positive to see the North East continue on an upward trend, the overall rise in top grades masks the fact that schools are seeing widespread downgrading of their Centre Assessed Grades, with some schools reporting grades far worse than their historical performance.
"Ofqual have admitted that students with low socioeconomic status have been downgraded more than their peers. While they have suggested that this will have no effect on the disadvantage gap, there is currently no way to analyse this due to the lack of transparency in this process.
"Any impact on disadvantaged students will disproportionately affect the North East due to the high levels of long term deprivation in our region. We cannot allow our students to be penalised further by the unique arrangements of this year’s results.
"This process, including the last minute announcement around acceptance of mock exam results is incredibly disappointing both for our students and school leaders."
Concerns in the region were echoed by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who slammed the system after r meeting A-level students at a sixth form college in Darlington,
He said: “The algorithm has not worked because it’s assessed 40% of students for a downgrade, and for schools and colleges they haven’t even got standardisation over the last two or three years, so this approach has failed.
“The Government needs to reset, rethink and it should not rule anything else out, including the sort of U-turn that was forced on the Scottish Government last week where they had to go back to the assessment.
“Something has to be done to put right this injustice.”
Calls to scrap the moderated grade system were made by education bodies including the National Union of Students, University and College Union and by the Sixth Form Colleges Association.
Dr Michelle Meadows, executive director for strategy, risk and research at Ofqual told reporters that its analyses showed there was “no evidence of systematic bias” in the exam assessment model used this year.
She said: “Outcomes for different groups, whether that be by socio-economic status, ethnicity, gender, the outcomes for these groups are very similar to those in previous years.”
Dr Meadows said that research literature covering A-level predictions for university entrants shows that “there is a tendency to be more generous to students from lower socio-economic status”.
Commenting on whether there was a relationship between social disadvantage and the moderation of exam results, she said: “There was a tendency for some more generosity to be there in the predictions for students with lower socio-economic status, backgrounds.”
She added: “There is a small effect of a greater difference between the end calculated grades and the centre assessment grades.”
The Department for Education said that a "record number" of teens from the most disadvantaged backgrounds in the country made it to university this year, up 7.3% from 2019.
A spokesperson added: "96.4% of grades were either the same as those submitted by schools or colleges or only changed by one grade, testament to teachers' excellent judgement and hard work."
