Monitoring and auditing

Thursday, 04 March 2010 12:10

It’s our responsibility to ensure all learners get the results they deserve and that their qualifications are correctly valued and understood, now and in the future.

This is why we check that all awarding organisations that award accredited qualifications reach the correct standards. We also ensure that any developments of these qualifications meet the criteria appropriate for their type, level and subject. We make sure that qualification standards are the same each year. We monitor the questions set and examiners’ marking as well as making sure that the awarding organisations carry out their roles correctly.

Monitoring programmes

We run the following monitoring and auditing programmes:

• The reliability programme
• The scrutiny programme
• The code of practice monitoring programme
• Awarding organisation audits
• Comparability studies, reviewing the standards of general qualifications over time, across awarding organisations and between subjects
• Reviews of standards for the main GCSE and A level subjects (over time and across awarding boards)

Full list of monitoring programme reports

GCSE and A level subject review programmes

Our comparability studies on standards over time, across awarding organisations and between subjects are based on materials stored in the national archive of examination materials, which we maintain.

We actively encourage improvement by activities that include:

• Holding seminars for awarding organisations on standards and technical issues
• Hosting conferences for senior examiners to help update and disseminate good practice
• Following up the action plans produced by awarding organisations in response to our monitoring
• Publishing materials illustrating grade standards for teachers
• Responding to queries and investigating complaints from schools, colleges, parents, MPs and the public in connection

We review and keep up to date the GCSE, A level, Principal Learning and Project code of practice, ensuring sufficient attention is being given to key aspects including awarding and appeals.

Monitoring reports

We publish a range of monitoring reports, including reports on:

• Individual awarding organisations and summary monitoring reports
• Particular aspects of awarding organisation performance, such as the quality of customer service
• Qualification standards over time and comparability between awarding organisations

Full list of monitoring reports

Monitoring awarding organisations

We produce post-accreditation monitoring reports on awarding organisations and organisations. We also produce annual reports on the performance of the three awarding organisations in England that offer A level and GCSE qualifications. We set deadlines for awarding organisations to respond to enquiries about results and appeals from candidates and centres. We publish awarding organisations' responses alongside all our reports.

Standards over time

Our five-yearly standard review reports are published in their original, technical language to ensure complete transparency of both the process and the outcome. This programme supplements awarding organisations' year-on-year standard setting processes.

The overall aim of the review programme is to determine any action needed to safeguard examination standards, through monitoring examination requirements (from 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, a newspaper headline reading “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. This makes it important to:

• Analyse the requirements made on candidates by different examinations
• Compare the levels of performance required for a particular grade
• Consider how these two elements relate to each other

National Curriculum monitoring

We focus on where the standard is embedded in particular processes, which are test development, marker training and level setting. We develop regulatory instruments to ensure transparency and consistency.

Last Updated on Thursday, 18 March 2010 15:08 Tags: Ofqual, education, examination regulation, qualifications, assessments