Data from the Department of Education shows that 79.3 per cent of grades across all levels will be unchanged due to standardisation.
At a briefing this afternoon, Ms Foley also confirmed that the department has dropped plans to use a school's previous academic record to assess this year's Leaving Cert grades.
The predicted grades of teachers will now carry more weight under changes to the Leaving Cert marking scheme this year.
Speaking at the briefing, Minister Norma Foley acknowledged concerns people have had:
"For some time now I have had serious concerns about the use of school by school historical data.
"As you aware in other jurisdictions it has led to accusations that students in disadvantaged schools in those jurisdictions, were at risk of being treated unfairly or subjected to what was called a 'postcode lottery'".
According to the department, adopting the preferred standardisation model, the average reduction in student marks following standardisation is 0.8 per cent in DEIS schools while the reduction is 1.3 per cent in non-DEIS schools.
Overall the data from the department revealed that as a result of standardising grades:
3.9 per cent of grades increase as a result of standardisation, with the increase being 5% in DEIS schools as compared to a 3.7% increase in non-DEIS schools.16.8 per cent of all grades are reduced by one grade as a result of standardisation, with 13.6% grades being decreased by one grade in DEIS schools compared to 16.8 per cent in non-DEIS schools. 0.1 per cent of all grades are reduced by two or more grades, with the figure being 0.1% in DEIS schools and 0.1% in non-DEIS schools.The average reduction in school marks as a result of standardisation is less in DEIS schools compared in non-DEIS schools.
Standardisation model
The Government said today's decisions will provide additional reassurances to Leaving Cert students and that their unique situation has been understood and treated fairly.
Ms Foley also said at today's briefing that the decision to drop using school's historical data was a necessary one:
“Equity and fairness must be at the heart of everything we do as a society. From my first day as Minister for Education I have been determined that in this extraordinary year, the system in place to mark students’ achievements of their years in post-primary education would be the fairest possible system under these challenging safeguards.
“While the Irish Calculated Grades model had inherent safeguards that marked it as more equitable than those that were used in other jurisdictions, I felt we could do more to assure our students of the fairness of our system.
“I have considered the effects and impacts of the standardisation model we are using, the importance of ensuring that students from disadvantaged backgrounds are not treated unfairly and the experiences in other jurisdictions in this regard."
