Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by WJEC

WJEC is the second largest provider of GCSE English and English Language qualifications in England. The main issues which we perceive as arising from the summer 2012 awards are set out below (with some additional explanation provided as an annexe).

1. General Issues

(a)that overall % A*-C outcomes are down in both England and Wales when under a “comparable outcomes” brief the intention was to maintain consistency in standards.

(b)that unusually large numbers of centres have seen significant changes in their % A*-C outcomes for 2012 when compared with 2011.

[note: In January 2012, WJEC offered written papers but not controlled assessment, so did not experience the problems reported in the Ofqual report in relation to grade boundaries being changed between January and June for controlled assessment.]

2. Issues in the Regulators’ Domain

(a)regulatory decision (2008/09) to give controlled assessment a 60% weighting in these specifications (WJEC view was that it should be nearer 25%).

(b)complexity of the qualifications suite available in England—two qualifications each with written papers available at foundation and higher tier and hence multiple routes through them to achieve grades A*-C (exact number of variants depending on awarding body).

(c)doubtful robustness of the Key Stage 2 predictor model which awarding organisations are required to use.

(d)influence brought to bear by regulators on some awarding organisation grade boundaries, based on conclusions reached by regulators using the outcomes of the Key Stage 2 predictor.

3. Issues in the Awarding Organisations’ Domain

(a)appropriateness of moderating arrangements used, with +/- 6% tolerances—ie centres’ marks remain unadjusted when deemed to be within +/- 6% of the mark which the moderator would award.

(b)specific or generic issues which may emerge from the Enquiries about Results process (which is currently in progress), including possibly in relation to quality of marking.

(c)extent to which additional advice needs to be provided to centres regarding the different demands of the controlled assessment relative to previous coursework approach.

7 September 2012

Annexe

1. WJEC Background

(i) Perspective

WJEC understands the concerns expressed by candidates and teachers in England and Wales about the results of this summer’s GCSE English exams. Many candidates were disappointed by their results, and we have every sympathy with them.

Like all the awarding organisations involved, WJEC followed guidelines set by regulators in making the summer awards. Ofqual has confirmed its view that the grades issued in England were fair, and we await the outcome of the Welsh Government’s review.

WJEC’s prime concern is to ensure fair outcomes for all our candidates; we are continuing to work with regulators in England and Wales to ensure this.

(ii) Scale of WJEC’s operation

WJEC is the second largest provider of GCSE qualifications in English and English Language.

In the summer 2012 series we provided assessments for some 156,500 “cash-in” candidates:

38,600 for GCSE English (a qualification available in England only) representing approximately 23% of the provision in England.

118,000 for GCSE English Language: around 84,000 of these were in England, representing approximately 19% of the provision, and 34,000 in Wales (approximately 95% of the provision).

(iii) January and summer series 2012

In the January 2012 series, WJEC did not offer controlled assessment. As we offered controlled assessment in the summer series only, we did not experience the difficulty which is reported extensively in the recent Ofqual report, ie the need to adjust controlled assessment boundaries upwards between January and summer series.

In the January series, we offered each of the written paper units, which were also available in the summer series.

(iv) Perceptions of grade boundaries

June 2012 was the first occasion on which WJEC has set grade boundaries for the controlled assessment units. In order to provide guidance for centres when undertaking the assessment of these units, the marks available are grouped in “bands”, and relative to these the grade boundaries used by WJEC this summer are not generally perceived by centres as being inappropriate.

Our written papers, which are externally marked, have now been awarded three times: June 2011, January 2012 and June 2012. Whilst there has been some movement in grade boundaries across these series, in both directions, these in the main reflect examiners’ judgements about the relative difficulty of the tasks contained in those question papers and are not different in nature from the variation in grade boundaries that would be seen between series across GCSE units in other subjects.

2. Main Concerns

Our two greatest concerns in relation to WJEC’s assessments and awards for GCSE English and English Language in 2012 are that:

(i)our awards have contributed to a reduction (see section 3) in the national outcomes for England (% A*-C all awarding body outcomes reducing from 65.5% to 64.2%) and for Wales (% A*-C all awarding body outcomes reducing from 61.3% to 57.4%), neither of these being anticipated under the regulators’ “comparable outcomes” approach nor intended as a specific regulatory requirement

(ii)far more centres than usual experienced a large change in % A*-C outcomes in 2012 compared with their outcomes in the previous year.

3. Issues Relating to the Awarding Process

We have the following concerns in relation to the awarding process for GCSE English and English Language in 2012.

(i) The regulatory requirement to use the predictor model based on Key Stage 2 data for “matched candidates” in England

This is the first time that WJEC has been required to use this approach, and we remain unconvinced that it provides a robust basis for delivering the “comparable outcomes” intended by regulators. We have asked regulators for a meeting to clarify their approach to “comparable outcomes” in the context of GCEs (where we also have concerns) and we would hope to extend that discussion to cover GCSEs.

(ii) The influence which regulators are able to exert post-award based solely on a statistical comparison of outcomes against the predictor model

When WJEC uses statistical information during the awarding process, this happens alongside consideration of evidence of the quality of candidates’ work; however, regulators use statistical information in isolation and the powers available to them are such that it is very difficult for awarding organisations to resist requests to adjust grade boundaries. In three of WJEC’s units, the grade C boundaries for GCSE English/English Language were adjusted upwards at regulators’ request post-award.

Our view is that the above factors have contributed to making WJEC’s GCSE English and English Language awards somewhat too severe in 2012.

4. Issues to be Addressed

WJEC considers that the following issues are priorities which need to be addressed.

(i) Appropriateness of nature and weighting of the 60% controlled assessment element

During discussions with regulators in 2008/09, when the regulatory criteria for these specifications were being developed, WJEC’s view was that the weighting should be nearer 25%, but the prevailing view was that 60% was appropriate. We would suggest that this needs to be reviewed in the light of the 2012 experience.

(ii) Impact of the qualification and tier choices available

In England, there are essentially six routes available to a Grade C: English and English Language, each at Foundation tier, Higher tier, or through a combination of Foundation and Higher tier units. The complexity of these arrangements has the potential to cause confusion.

(iii) Appropriateness of moderation arrangements

There is a convention across awarding bodies that “tolerances” of 6% should be applied when moderating controlled assessments of this kind (ie an awarding body will not adjust the marks awarded by a centre if, for the sample of work inspected by the external assessor, the centre’s marks are deemed to be within 6% of the mark which the external assessor would have awarded.

Our view is that the appropriateness of this convention needs to be reviewed in the context of a controlled assessment element that carries such high weighting within a high stakes subject.

(iv) Outcomes of the enquiries about results process

This is the main route through which we progress our follow-up work in response to centres’ concerns. As the volume of enquiries is considerably higher than in a typical year, we have more re-marking being undertaken by the most senior examiners and through this we are able to identify and address both specific and generic issues, including those relating to the quality of marking.

(v) Potential differences in the ways in which centres have adjusted to the requirements of the new specifications

The impact of the introduction of controlled assessment is possibly greater in English and English Language than in any other subject, hence it is possible that a considerable part of the change in results at centre level between 2011 and 2012 has been caused by the impact of the considerable additional demands on centres and candidates.

September 2012