| Sumario: | The Covid-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to education systems worldwide, prompting major changes to assessment practices. This article examines the consequences of England's 2020 exam cancellation and the shift to teacher-assessed grades for university application outcomes that had been submitted before the pandemic. Using newly linked administrative data for four student cohorts and a double-differences design, we estimate that teacher-assessed grades were 0.19–0.41 points higher than expected under standard examinations, indicating substantial grade inflation. Private school students benefited most, though disadvantaged students within state schools also gained relative to peers. Students from schools with larger assessment modifications were more likely to be admitted to their first-choice course, to enrol in more selective universities, and were less likely to remain unplaced. These findings highlight how emergency changes to assessment can reshape university access and educational inequality, offering broader insights into the role of grading practices in periods of systemic disruption.
|
|---|