Fairness in tension: A socio-technical analysis of an algorithm used to grade students

Abstract In response to the emergence of COVID in England in 2020, the government declared a suspension of face-to-face education. To deal with the cancellation of exams, then minister of education Gavin Williamson assigned the Office of Qualifications (OfQual) with devising a method for awarding grades to students based on the standards they would have met had the examinations not been cancelled. As a response, OfQual implemented a prediction matrix based on the resources available to them: this system is wildly referred to as the OfQual algorithm. However, as the points were delivered on 13 August 2020, disputes arose leading to the cancellation of the algorithm. This paper will focus on the OfQual algorithm as a particularly relevant case to highlight the tensions around the notion of fairness in the implementation of such systems. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies, I will start by opening the black box of the OfQual algorithm. This will, in turn, allow me to identify the conflicting accounts of what is considered as fair in such system and how such accounts were inscribed within this algorithm, questioning what it means for such system to be fair in contexts marked by inequalities.