Remarking Shakes the Trust Placed on the Education System - Essay Example

169927 It had always been a matter of litigation: Who will be take the complete responsibility of remarking Remarking shakes the trust placed on the education system and there is a psychological uncertainty attached to it as against the absolute trust in the fairness of the exam marking system. "One of the principal concerns of any examining body is to ensure that its examinations are marked reliably. It is essential that each examiner is applying the same standard from one script to the next, just as it is essential that each examiner is marking to the same standard as every other examiner," Newton (1996, p.405). In recent years, remarking of exam papers has come under acute scrutiny. In 2001-2002, this had been a big issue in the GCSE and A-levels examinations because the grades were very different from expectations and widely fluctuated. Questions like should the students be compensated if there is a legal action, has cropped up many times. This also resulted in some students taking a gap year. Students and parents were both disturbed by this years grading and it had not been easy for anybody. But schools were told that the variations are normal and had to be accepted1. There was an enquiry by the watchdog QCA and the question is not completely answered who and how the remarking should take place. Confusion has created a crisis. In 2001, A-level examinations saw 4,194 candidates had their grades increased by the normal procedure which rather shook the trust in the exam system. In 2002, BBC reported that A-level students can ask for re-marking. "Over 12,000 pupils across Wales have discovered they may have had their A-level papers incorrectly marked after English examination boards admitted they downgraded some results". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2268475.stm In 2002, during the crisis of remarking, The Chief Executive of the qualifications and curriculum authority gave exam boards and connected officials to come up with new guidelines as the existing guidelines proved inadequate. In 2003, exam board replaced paper marking with US designed technology to improve the speed and process. In 2005, more than 18,000 A-level and GCSE examination grades were changed after complaining. According to The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority's report, 53,600 of the 6.7 million A and AS-level entries were challenged. Of the six million GCSE, 48,422 enquiries happened and out of them 10.773 were altered. These figures relate to the five main exam boards, AQA, Edexzcel, OCR, WJEC and CCEA2. The revised grades helped many students in their university admissions. Government3 was of the opinion that regional centres of the exam boards would carry out the remaking as usual on priority because the deadline for remarking was almost over on every occasion and a fresh deadline was necessary to be authorised from the QCA. Over the recent years, there were rumours that wrong grades had been awarded and there was widespread unhappiness that lower grades caused problems during university admissions and funding possibilities which will in turn have problems on teaching and accommodation facilities etc. as a lower grade would create a continuous chain reaction, more so, when the student was sure of getting a better grade. The so-called gold standard exam has created unnecessary uncertainty which is rather unfortunate. If the exam results are significantly worse than expectation and are almost beyond belief, it becomes necessary to ask for a remarking instead of nursing a grievance that could become a psychological stumbling block. Teachers are equally mystified not knowing mostly what exactly the Board is looking for. Students are uncertain about re-sits. Some of the students who got upgraded after the review were happy, but the confusion and lack of trust in the system prevailed. Many questions were asked: Is it necessary to move away from standard based assessments Are there better ways of marking so that a remarking is not called for If remarking becomes an absolute necessity, are there better ways of doing it Usually the grades are granted on a fair basis, said the independent reports; but the reports made 12 recommendations to change the school examination system and for the first time, a judge looked into the examination procedure of A levels and GCSEs. The study was conducted by Lord Mackay, the former Lord Chancellor to ascertain if the grades were granted fairly, though this was not the first occasion when the grades and exams came under scrutiny. There was an earlier research in 1999 where awarding body staff, examiners, moderators were interviewed and it concluded that Edexcel had a highly reliable and professional examination system and it expressed its trust in the way the examiners were interviewed, appointed, trained and assessed throughout. On that occasion, Lord Mackay had said: "The system for marking and awarding A-level and GCSE qualifications is fair and checks and balances exist to ensure examiners' marking is consistent.4" He said, procedures exist to ensure consistency in marking; grading is fair, examiners receive suitable training and are competent. He suggested improvements such as: if a remarking is requested, original marks need not be seen by the remarking individual; when remarking is requested, grades could fall as well as rise and greater vigilance is necessary against examiners fatigue. There are other arguments that markers have to fear as much as the students and have to be sympathized. This was mentioned in relation with the sacking of Sir William Stubbs, Chair of the QCA. It is the most important criteria of any exam that the grades should be a fair reflection of the student's work and hence, mistakes do not have a place. Sometimes they do occur, or sometimes the students think that they must have occurred and under those circumstances, remarking becomes necessary. The procedure has existed for many years now. Only the school can apply for remarking and not the student or parents/carers and before going for remarking, it is necessary for the student to discuss with the subject teachers, because sometimes the student expectations could be unrealistic. The request is followed by a clerical re-check to see that all parts of the paper are available and marks are computerised. Even an externally marked paper will have a clerical re-check and a remarking sometimes takes up to forty days unless it comes under priority remarking. Remarking is done by a senior examiner and definitely not by the original examiner. Priority remarking is usually done under urgent circumstances like already having secured a place in the university and confirmation is depending on the examination result and under such circumstances, remarking could be completed within 20 days. Unfortunately, this is unavailable for international students and remains a mere summer service for national students. There could be a re-moderation of coursework and this depends on the merits of the case. Remarking request should be placed before 20th of September for June paper and 25th of August for priority paper. Edexcel moderates all coursework marks so that they could maintain the same nationally agreed standard. Remarking results are keyed in into the computer system and the changed grade statement will be sent to Examinations Officer and the student cannot refuse a decreased grade, because such a risk is already implied while asking for a remarking. A prior photo-copy of the paper is provided on request to judge the paper before applying for remarking, which will definitely reduce the risk. Remarking also involves a nominal fee either to be paid by the school or by the student. If the student still remains unsatisfied, the centre could make an appeal, but remarking is not usually involved at this stage, unless the appeal is about the procedures not being followed. As the university admissions and funding/scholarship possibilities are involved, time is of great significance here. George Turnbull says: "But there is a further appeal system which can be gone through if a school wants to take that route and it can eventually go to an independent appeals body completely and separate from the examining boards themselves. So there are plenty of things that can be done but they've got to be done at the right time." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/talking_point/forum/2292467.stm Reliability of re-assessment is necessary, because inconsistency could lead to unending dissatisfaction. Inevitability of inconsistency has to be restored in the system with practical measures. Marking methods are under scrutiny in the last five or six years, as they are now considered to be out of date. Existing methods are elaborate laid down in GCE and GCSE Codes of Practice; but usually it is felt that some improvement should be made in this field. It is important to know how UMS results are calculated before aspiring for a remarking and how meetings are held for the professional judgements of deciding the thresholds. "The raw marks for the unit have already been established, but they don't mean very much on their own. They have to be converted to a Uniform Mark Scale (or Score), known as UMS. The weighting of units may vary so UMS unifies the marks to make them compatible and comparable. UMS gives a fixed scale with common boundaries that are unchanged year-on-year." http://www.ocr.org.uk/exam_system/understand_ums.html At every stage further checks are carried out to mark to make sure that marks tally with the work done. "After all the exam papers are marked and returned to the exam board, more checks are carried out. Individual exam papers are checked to ensure that all the questions have been marked and the marks have been added up correctly," http://www.qca.org.uk/12812_12922.html Appeals should be lodged within two weeks of receiving the outcome of the remarking. Even re-sitting for the examination could be considered although time involved should be given special attention. Usually students of higher classes are advised to talk to lab supervisor, year/school tutor, and personal tutor, head of the school, or even to someone in the Exam Team in the Student Service Centre. There were many suggestions over the years for continuous assessment instead of placing tremendous weight on the exam itself. "Of the several major reforms introduced through the 1988 Education Act, the plans to assess all pupils at regular intervals throughout their schooling were among the most ambitious and the most radical. By comparison the National Curriculum itself, though a clear break with the post-war convention that the school curriculum should be determined locally, was conservative in its design," Daughetty (1995, p.174. A growing body of critics argue that political dictates, arbitrary ideological prejudiced strategy implementations are becoming more and more conspicuous. "in 1992 the Prime Minister imposed a substantially reduced course-work limit, arguing against an overwhelming body of research evidence that 'paper and pencil tests' and 'unseen exams' are more rigorous. Such direct ministerial interventions in education in the face of concerted opposition are almost unprecedented in England," Broadfoot (1996, p.227). Courses, assessments and examinations are connected directly with the aspirations of the society. "Educational goals reflect the general needs of society. As a result most goals, if stated in general terms, tend to be accepted or adopted by most educators and educational institutions" Kubiszyn and Borich (2007, p.81). Remarking procedure and its connected uncertainties have created a lot of ruckus in the society, educational and political circles. At one point of time, remarking row raked up many unpleasant facts between Sir William Stubbs, the Curriculum Chairman and Department for Education and Skills. There were reports and enquiries on the 'fixing fiasco' that shook the trust of students in the system. Sir Stubbs' attack on Education Secretary, Estelle Morris resulted in unpleasant end through talks about 'grade inflation', and charges of interference by the Education Secretary. In 2002, head teachers demanded that all 700,000 A-level papers of summer examination should be rechecked as they considered the marks as unreliable; but this request was unacceptable to the government and later it was limited to exams taken only through the OCR board because it had the largest number of queries. But later two other boards, AQA and Edexcel were included in the category. The point here is that the Head teachers had so little trust in the marking system that they demanded remarking of all the students, which was such an unhappy event showing the lack of trust within the educational system. The government had assured that regional centres of the exam boards would be attending to the work of remarking using the already existing procedures. Anyone who thought that the marks awarded was unfair, or far below the expectations, was asked to contact the school. This still remains one of controversial periods in the educational history of the country. It is definite that a lot of transparency lies in the present system and mostly the marking is above reproach. Still the fact remains that remarking should have more visibility and students should have more alternatives to voice their grievances as their careers are directly affected even by a single mistake by the marking or remarking systems. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Broadfoot, Patricia M. (1996), Education, Assessment and Society, Open University Press, Buckingham. 2. Daugherty, Richard (1995), National Curriculum Assessment, The Falmer Press, London. 3. Kubiszyn, Tom and Borich, Gary (2007), Educational Testing and Measurement, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, N.J. 4. Newton, P.E. (1996), The Reliability of Marking of General Certificate of Secondary education scripts: Mathematics and English, British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 22, No.4, 1996. 1. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://education.guardian.co.uk/alevels2002/story/0,,795544,00.html 2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/2601831.stm 3. http://www.edexcel.org.uk/about/media/news/2000/31934.htm 4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/talking_point/forum/2292467.stm 5. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4562747.stm 6. http://www.ocr.org.uk/exam_system/understand_ums.html 7. http://www.qca.org.uk/12812_12922.html 8. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2268475.stm 9. Read More