Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Richard J Nixon
I have been advised that you are the chairman of the Parliamentary Educational Select Committee and you are holding a hearing with the exam boards on Thursday 15 December 2011.
Back in the summer I contact my MP Henry Smith and OFQUAL about my concerns about the examiner standardisation process that the various exam boards hold to prepare examiners/moderators for marking exam papers and/or moderating accessed coursework. I moderate GCSE additional applied science coursework for AQA and mark GCSE and A Level chemistry exam papers for Edexcel.
Each May, to prepare for moderating GCSE additional applied science coursework for AQA, I take a day of work from my school to attend a standardisation meeting in Central London hotel where I meet my team leader and officers from the AQA science department. Contrast that with what Edxecel do to prepare me for marking online GCSE and A Level exam papers:
June 2010—took day off school to complete standardisation of GCSE citizenship papers (marked this paper due to my experience as a borough councillor @ Reigate & Banstead BC from 2006 to 2010). The standardisation process was conducted using online chat room with me speaking and listening to my team leader using my PC and headphones. I never got to meet the team leader in person or see a photo of her to put a face to name/voice.
June 2011—did not need to take day off work to complete standardisation for AS Chemistry as it all took place online in the evenings with me having to complete a set of 10 practice papers and then set 10 qualification papers. If I had any queries regarding questions on the screens in front of me I had to phone my team leader. I never got to meet the teamleader in person or see a photo of him to put a face to name/voice.
November 2011—went to standardisation meeting in Central London hotel on Saturday morning for new syllabus for the GCSE science exams. I meet my team leader and officers from the Edexcel science department.
I raised the matter of the different standardisation processes with OFQUAL in June 2011. They looked into the matter and decided that it was up to Edexcel to decide what was the best form of standardisation to prepare the examiners for marking online exam papers. Having done all three types available to examiners in the last 18 months the former two (chatroom/online and online only) saves Edexcel lots of money in teacher release fees, travel costs and hotel bookings but not sure that it is the best way to prepare examiners for marking papers.
November 2011