The fiasco over delayed school test results affecting millions of children
could result in the company responsible being sacked and forced to pay back
tens of millions of pounds.
Ken Boston, the head of the exams regulator, said after an emergency hearing
of MPs yesterday, that the testing system was under stress and needed
modernising. He added that problems were unlikely to be resolved in time for
next year’s tests.
Thousands of parents are expected to challenge the results, encouraged by the
adverse publicity surrounding this year’s exams.
This week Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head
Teachers, said schools were reporting “all kinds of problems” with marking,
and told parents that they should not rely on SATs [national curriculum
test] results as the sole indicator of their child’s progress. He urged
schools to give parents teachers’ assessments of pupils, as well as SATs
results, and advised that these be treated as “provisional”.
Yesterday Dr Boston, the chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum
Authority, claimed that the company, ETS, had failed to respond to 10,000
e-mails. His officials were forced to set up and pay for a call centre to
cope with complaints to the company.
However, MPs also raised questions about Dr Boston’s future, demanding to see
his own employment contract, which was sent to them last night. The Commons
Children, Schools and Families Committee held an emergency session to
discuss the problems, which Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, has previously
described as “unacceptable”.
ETS, an American contractor, is accused of presiding over a catalogue of
errors, which culminated in tests not being marked on time. Key Stage 2
tests taken by 11-year-olds are due to be returned to schools today, a week
late, and Key Stage 3 tests taken by 14-year-olds should be ready by Friday.
Dr Boston apologised to MPs yesterday for the delays and told the hearing that
the QCA was “exploring all commercial and legal avenues” to decide what
action to take.
His officials had held weekly meetings with ETS since September, and daily
meetings since May, in an attempt to resolve problems. They found what he
described as an “enormous number of issues”: a backlog of 10,000 e-mails and
a vast underestimation of the volume of phone calls.
The National Assessment Agency (NAA), an offshoot of the QCA, immediately set
up another call centre. However, Dr Boston insisted that the quality of
marking had not been affected, despite teachers working long shifts at
emergency centres to get the papers marked, and some schools complaining
that exam papers have been returned unmarked. He insisted that ETS appeared
to be the best contender for the job, at the time of bidding, adding: “The
company continues to have a good track record. Its failure here is certainly
something we didn’t predict.”
He said later: “Something has gone wrong and it is clear that we need not only
to deal with the problem that’s confronting us at the moment, but to ensure
it never happens again.”
While many of the papers were marked on time, ETS could not keep up with
processing the data, which had to be manually inputted on computers.
Dr Boston was questioned by MPs about why it took the QCA so long to tackle
the problem, if it was having regular meetings with ETS.
He said: “We were aware. We were in there working with them. It became clear
on June 26 when contractually they had to tell us formally whether they were
going to make it or not.”
Despite having doubts “we were reasonably certain that we would assist them to
overcome the problems”, he added, saying that the QCA had pushed ETS over
whether they were going to meet the deadline. “Their assurance was yes,” he
said.
Asked who was to blame, Dr Boston said there were three parties: the
Government, QCA and ETS, adding: “We too [QCA] may well have made mistakes,
done things that may have caused problems or not done things that may have
avoided problems.”
Dr Boston told MPs that the QCA was in a strong commercial position, and that
there would be “remedies” as a consequence of ETS’s failure. These are
likely to include significant penalties, with money paid back for services
not delivered. This could run into tens of millions of pounds, he said.
When asked, after the meeting, whether ETS would be sacked, Dr Boston said the
QCA had taken “legal advice on a range of options”. He added that ETS might
have the capacity to terminate the contract if it desired.
He said ETS was chosen partly because it was offering long-term technical
solutions, but that it was “data processing [going] up the tube that was the
killer”.
Dr Boston said that what had happened was a symptom of the stress that the
testing system was under. He added that there were difficulties getting
enough markers, particularly for English papers. An inquiry into the cause
of the delays will be led by Lord Sutherland of Houndwood.
A spokesman for the QCA said it would look at the issues, which included
problems with marker recruitment and retention, delays in getting papers to
markers, unmarked scripts being returned to schools and inadequate
call-centre capacity.
Testing around the world
Australia
National testing in maths and English for primary children every year from age
8 to 13. Students can leave school at 15 or go on to complete a Certificate
of Secondary Education at 18
France
National testing of students aged 8 and 11. Students can begin a baccalaureate
at 16, which is examined externally
Germany
No national assessment in primary education, but continuous monitoring
throughout the school year is compulsory. Students who complete education
successfully up to age 16 receive a School Leaving Certificate. A Higher
Leaving Certificate at 18 enables students to go on to higher education
The Netherlands
All children are assessed continuously by their teachers in primary level.
About 85 per cent of children take part in the national tests in the final
year of primary school. At 12, students choose between four tiers of
vocational and academic education towards final exams at 16, 17 or 18
Poland
No external testing until age 13 when pupils take exams in core subjects
before secondary school. School Leaving Certificate exam at 16. Seven tiers
of education post16 all culminate in final exams
Spain
No national testing pre16. Assessment is continuous and varies between
schools, but national tests for 10 and 14-year-olds will be introduced in
September. Certificate of Secondary Education at 16 before the
baccalaureate, which is examined externally
Sweden
Children are continually monitored and observed between the ages of 3 and 6.
Schools can opt in to testing for pupils aged 6-15 in Swedish and maths.
Over 15 the tests are compulsory. After 16 there are no final national
leaving examns
US
State testing in reading, maths and science age 8-14. To go to university
pupils must pass either the Scholastic Achievement Test or the American
College Testing exam
Source: International Review of Curriculum and Assessment Frameworks Internet
Archive
Ed Balls has to go. He should resign immediately. If he doesn't then he should be fired along with ETS.
Will, Lincoln, UK
"...to ensure it never happens again....” The perpetual call of governments and their appointees -over EVERYTHING which constantly goes wrong. And naturally, who do they consider the best people to make sure "this never happens again"? Why, themselves of course! For nothing is ever THEIR fault!
S. Barraclough, Huddersfield, W. Yorkshire
ETS must have undercut the preceeding exam agency, Edexcel, in order to win the contract. Who awarded the contract, the NAA? Peanuts and Monkeys...
I resigned as a senior marker for science in March having huge issues with the proposed changes. It didn't take a crystal ball to see what was coming.
Norman Hewitt, North Shields,
My daughters teacher assessment were spot on for every thing apart for writing. I can not believe that the teachers correctly assess levels in every subject for 93 pupils but failed to spot 34 children who according to the writing SATS results are a level 3 Deadlines&poor marking are to blame!
Jo, Huddersfield,
Dr. Boston is not correct in saying that SATS marking is impossible to administer.
Last year I marked KS 3 English - notoriously the most difficult paper to mark - and under EdExcel, live script sampling throughout, it went without a hitch. I enjoyed the marking immensely. 2008 - nightmare!
Susan Harr, HULL, UK
The basic problem was a total lack of trust. Markers were not allowed to see the English KS2 papers until the training day. We then waited ( I was lucky) 10 days before I got my scripts. But it was head down for 51/2 weeks. The web design was chronic, and benchmarking a joke. I finished on time-just
carlyle, columbus, india
The real problem here is not following up on progress regularly. Waiting until the results are due and then finding that there are delivery issues is far too late. There ought to have been monthly follow-up meetings at which ETS showed its progress ever since the contract was granted.
jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/USA
UK SATs exams are meaningless, at best they contribute to deciding which maths/science etc set the child is in the following year. It's GCSEs and more importantly A-Levels that are actually important - and as an A-Level student who has been through the current system, I know what I'm talking about
Sam, Farnham, UK
At least the kids can see from an early age what a mess our Government can make of even the simplest of tasks . Utterly embarrassing ! But you now know what to expect in the future kids ...
Benzo, Nr Chelmsford,
nulaba refuse to learn that these American providers just rip them off, my guess is that the civil service is riddled with private sector moles and sleepers, but who will investigate?
peter c, devizes, wessex
The comment "pay back millions" is stated in your article. Why have they been paid in advance and how much?
I bet Gordon claims he knows nothing about it!!
A.Williams, Cradley Heath,
Just shows how much testing actually means...zip.
judy, Liverpool, England
So we have an Australian in charge of the examination system sub-contracting out marking to an American company. This sounds just like the sort of fiasco you would expect from a Gordon Brown led Government.
Why can we not run our own affairs?
Richard Wyld, Effingham, UK
I'd like to point out that in Poland,just like in Germany they have Higher Leaving Certificate at 18 which enables students to go on to higher education,equivalent to UK's A level.
Lina, Shrewsbury, England
The class teacher is NOT the best judge. Independent testing when done correctly is head and shoulders above any subjective evaluation. Teachers evaluate on knowledge, behavior, parental involvement, etc.etc. You can't bribe a test with an apple. I know, I'm a teacher. ETS reduces cultural bias
William Bushey, Wilmington, DE, USA
A recent development in the US is that many US universities no longer require a student to take either the SAT or ACT as an entrance exam.
Bill, Bethesda, USA
It is not accurate to say that there is a "pass" mark for the SAT, and some pupils in the US enter university without taking it at all (although this is rare in the most selective universities). American students are continually assessed by their teachers for high school graduation.
Elizabeth , Portland, uSA
The class teacher is the best judge. Let him remain so. Why ETS for the job when UK has a tradition of objective assessment of the pupils?
ssrajagopalan, chennai, india