Standards over time
Last updated on: 11/03/2008
Introduction
As the regulator of external qualifications in England we must maintain GCE and GCSE standards over time and across awarding bodies. The five-yearly review of standards reports are published in their original, technical language to ensure complete transparency of both the process and the outcome.
The programme of five-yearly reviews supplements awarding bodies' year-on-year standard setting processes. It is important to take the reports as a complete picture, rather than drawing generalised conclusions from some findings of a particular report.
Background
In his Review of Qualifications for 16–19 Year Olds (1996) Lord Dearing made several recommendations to ensure that 'there is a basis and accepted procedure... for monitoring and safeguarding standards over time'. In the same year, SCAA (one of QCA's predecessors) and Ofsted jointly recommended that there should be:
'... a rolling programme of reviews on a five-year cycle to ensure examination demands and grade standards are being maintained in all major subjects.' (Standards in Public Examinations 1975 to 1995, p 4)
As a result of these recommendations we, in collaboration with the regulators for Wales and Northern Ireland (DCELLS and CCEA), introduced the 'Five-yearly review of standards' programme which investigates standards in A level and GCSE examinations.
Purposes
The overall aim of the review programme is to determine any action needed to safeguard examination standards, through monitoring examination requirements (the requirements of syllabuses and their assessment instruments) and grade standards (the level of performance required of candidates at key grades) over time.
The use of the term 'standards' can be confusing. For example, the headline 'Standards for 16 year-olds are rising' may mean that a higher level of achievement is required to obtain a certain level of pass, or that more people are reaching a certain level of achievement than in the past. It could be both; the standard itself may rise as well as the number of students reaching the standard.
Therefore it is important to:
- analyse the nature of the requirements different examinations make on candidates
- compare the levels of performance required for a particular grade
- consider how these two elements relate to each other.