7/24/2008 8:38:00 AM
HEADS MUST ROLL OVER THE SATS DEBACLE
Alan Smithers; The Independent 24 July
This year's SATs fiasco was an accident waiting to happen. It's not as if we weren't warned. There was a near collapse in 2004 when the English tests for 14-year-olds were delayed. An inquiry chaired by Mike Beasley, the former managing director of Jaguar, roundly criticised all those involved, and singled out "the poor leadership and inadequate project management". David Miliband, as school standards minister, said 'it must never happen again'; Ken Boston, chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority apologised profusely, and the little known head of its assessment arm was prevailed upon to fall on his sword. AQA, the exams body, stood down.But here we are again. In fact, it has been touch-and-go for the past three years, with the results for 11-year-olds only ready because those for 14-year-olds were held back. This year, however, with yet another new marking agency, this time from abroad, the sky seems to have fallen in. Remarkably, as everyone concerned has been very keen to tell us, the procedures seem to have been followed perfectly. The QCA chairman, Sir Anthony Greener, declared that the process of awarding the marking contract to Education Testing Services was a model of its kind. Ken Boston assured the Commons select committee that everything had been done within the terms of the contract to have the results available to schools on time. Kathleen Tattersall, chair of the nascent test and exams scrutineer, Ofqual, was wheeled out to say the procedures for ensuring the quality of marking were the best ever.
Independent
LEADING ARTICLE: SORRY, MR BALLS, NO HOLIDAY FOR YOU
The Independent 24 July
As Ed Balls packs his suitcase for his summer holidays, he must be wondering how much time he will have to play with his children and read novels. The Schools Secretary has a full in-tray and plenty of issues to mull over. The SATs debacle is just one of his headaches. Another issue threatening to destabilise the exam system is that more and more schools – including some in the state sector – are preparing to ditch A-levels in favour of the new Cambridge Pre-U exam, to be offered to pupils for the first time in September. The autumn will throw up a host of new problems with the launch of the Government's specialist diplomas, which – figures show – will be taken by 20,000 youngsters in the first year rather than the 38,000 the Government had originally wanted. Mr Balls's way of dealing with the SATs fiasco and the failure of the American-based firm, ETS Europe, to deliver the national curriculum test results on time has been to heap all blame on the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the Government's national curriculum watchdog, and to say that his department has always been "at arm's length" from the problems surrounding the tests.Independent
TESTING TIME FOR BALLS
Michael White; The Guardian 24 July
Gordon Brown is always banging on about Britain needing to keep raising its educational game if it is to compete with the resurgent economic power of Asia, and rightly so. But sweeping macro-generalisations have a nasty habit of boiling down to micro-details such as the quality of marking on an 11-year-old's Sats English paper.Most teachers hate Sats - external tests in English, maths and science at 7, 11 and 14. These tests consume a lot of time, the results are highly influential in terms of league tables, but worryingly erratic. Above all, they force them to "teach to the test" at the expense of the wider curriculum, including music, art, and PE. "It's just like practising kids for the 11-plus," one teaching veteran of 40 years said. An irony indeed for New Labour. Yet Ed Balls, the schools secretary, has grounds for hating Sats too. As parliament headed for the beach on Tuesday he sensibly bowed to all-party rage among MPs and went to the Commons for a kicking, duly delivered.Behind the latest flare-up in a policy which dates from Margaret Thatcher's determination to use external tests to improve under-performing schools, is an under-performing contract awarded to the US company Educational Testing Service (ETS) to mark British Sats.It had been becoming clear for some time that this year's marking of the key stage 2 and 3 Sats were running late. Ministers intervened in May and were assured by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) that it would all come good by delivery time, next week. By July 4, as alarm grew about quality as well as lateness, the QCA had to admit it wouldn't. Lord Sutherland was appointed to hold an inquiry.But who to blame? The Tories' Michael Gove naturally wants to stick it on the government: too many tests, too few markers, too complacent when trouble arose. David Laws, the Lib Dems' man, says "it's 50%-60% ETS's fault, 30% the QCA's, 10%-20% the government's for not getting on top of it."There are wider questions about accountability. Education is awash with acronyms and abbreviations impenetrable to outsiders, most of them known as non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs). The buck stops with Balls, says David Blunkett, who once did his job. Privately, civil servants happily agree, though Labour MPs say the Tories advocate arms-length management; then complain when it goes wrong
Guardian
THE SCHOOLS SECRETARY SHOULD LEARN HIS LESSON
Leader Daily Telegraph 24 July
As Ed Balls surveys the debacle of this summer's unmarked SATs papers, he gives the impression of having innocently stumbled across a rather nasty accident. He says he feels the pain of teachers, children and parents - but insists he is not responsible. Accountable to Parliament, yes, but not responsible (the nuance will be lost on many) - so no apology. Yet Mr Balls is the Schools Secretary. If the buck does not stop with him, then with whom? No one, it seems. He argues that he has had to maintain an arm's length relationship with the SATs process because it is "not possible for the Government to be accountable for the results of tests while at the same time being actively involved in the management of the marking of those tests". Telegraph
Curriculum / Quality Assurance
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