Today the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) released their Annual Report and Accounts 2014−15. Now, I have no interest in their accounts however I do have an interest in examination regulation. I wondered if there was anything I could learn from the report?
Ofqual oversees 160 awarding organisations that offer qualifications in England. “Validity, fairness and transparency,” are key adjectives to the organisation, transparency more than the other two.
I was surprised by the scope of Functional skills, 7% of all regulated qualifications taken in England each year. In 2013–14, over one million were awarded. Functional skills came under some scrutiny following an Ofqual report in 2015 which put forward a number of recommendation. These included
…improving the quality of assessment materials, reducing the risk of malpractice and maladministration, strengthening standards setting procedures and evaluating better how far qualifications are meeting users’ needs.
GCSE and GCE – Linear. Assessment will be mainly by exam, with other types of assessment used only where they are needed to test essential skills
GCSE resit opportunities will only be available each November in English language and maths.
National Foundation for Educational Research was selected to develop and deliver new National Reference Tests. The new tests will be introduced in 2017 and will help to provide evidence of any change in performance standards over time in GCSE English language and maths in England at the end of Year 11.
Qualification standards
We [Ofqual] think of qualification standards in three ways:
- content standards (what the student is to learn);
- assessment standards (how assessments are designed and delivered);
- performance standards (the standard of candidate achievement, or results).
I wonder how this model might be applied to wider school assessment.
Ofqual enquiries – individual enquiries rose by 48% to 77,400. 18.7% of challenged grades were changed, 1% of all grades issued. Make of these figures what you will. On a very practical level its worth knowing that approximately 1:5 grades that were challenged, changed.
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