Boxes of scripts lie unmarked, misdirected and unclaimed in a school office, inconsistently and unsatisfactorily marked English papers have to be laboriously double checked by teachers and half a class of year six pupils are incorrectly marked as being absent from their science SATs.
These are just a few of the stories emerging from schools over the past few weeks as the full extent of the SATs debacle continues to unfold. The saga has led head teachers and union leaders to call for league tables to be scrapped and a more holistic and equitable system of testing pupils based on teacher assessment to be introduced.
Whilst schools were supposed to have received all their SATs results this week, many schools have only received partial results. English papers have been particularly affected by the delay, with schools secretary Ed Balls telling MPs that full results for 14 year olds will not be available “until well into the holidays”.
The government has now launched an inquiry into the marking delays. The handling of the situation by ETS Europe, the private company brought in to manage the exams, will be considered, alongside the role of the Qualification and Curriculum Authority.
This week, NAHT general secretary Mick Brookes urged Jim Knight, minister of state, to move towards a “more intelligent way of assessing and celebrating the achievements of our children and young people”, pointing out that many schools appear to have scripts sent back unmarked, that marking was inconsistent, that mark totaling was faulty on many scripts and that the costs of removing teachers from schools for last minute marking appeared to be “out of control”.
"Yet to receive a single script"
One marker team leader in Lancashire was offered £1,000 to mark scripts over a weekend, and whilst many markers have been offered £180 - £200 a day to leave their school posts and mark scripts, other trained markers have yet to receive a single script. “I have now been paid £92 for the training day…and have been notified that I will receive £250 for marking absolutely no papers!” says one.
And when scripts have been returned to schools, there have been widespread reports of inconsistent and incorrect marking. Many schools have found borderline papers under marked, and have been laboriously remarking papers and sending them back to be reviewed. This added layer of bureaucracy is too much for one head, who has been sent poorly marked English writing papers with very low scores. “I have a good mind to send them all back, but can’t see how I can do the paperwork needed within the timeframe,” she comments.
Tony Roberts, NAHT Lancashire branch secretary says that what’s going on is his area – which contains about 1,000 schools - is broadly representative of the situation across the UK. “Basically, we don’t think [ETS] were geared up for the job,” he says, listing a litany of complaints from schools, including those who have yet to receive any marked scripts, inconsistent English marking, and helpline calls and email requests for information going unanswered.
“It seems to us that NAA and ETS have still not grasped the logistics of the exercise. Asking for staff to be released to go and mark not only shows that they do not understand that teachers cannot just be taken out of their schools, [it] shows a desperation to get the job done. We feel that such is the pressure on NAA they are doing anything and everything - presumably cost is immaterial - to say that they have marked the papers on time; never mind the quality or efficiency of the process.”
Administrative Mishandling = One Giant Headache
Jean Morris, head of Banks Methodist School in Southport, points out that after three phone calls she was 41st in the helpline queue to report missing labels to send scripts back. “I only have five pupils in the cohort but was not allowed to put all the scripts in one bag!” she adds. Such administrative mishandling can add up to one giant headache for schools, says Roberts.
“The marking is just not good enough. [But] what’s really frightening is the system is in chaos - it’s not worked. And what is really making head teachers cross is that [the results] were deferred for a week
“In terms of schools there’s a workload issue. There’s a ridiculous amount of work that has been created. And there’s a total disillusionment issue. You’ve got another IT system that doesn’t work efficiently, and the amount of money that’s going into these systems adds to the feeling that the current education system is about testing and not education.”
Paul Gabriel, head of Lancaster Road primary school in Morecambe, agrees. Just over half of his year six pupils – 32 out of 63 - have been marked as absent for their science SATs. “Just over half the papers have come back, but the set of papers left the school in the same shipping bag. The children have been marked as absent rather than the papers as missing,” he says.
Gabriel has been unable to get through on the helpline, and his emails have remained unanswered.
“From the children’s point of view, they’ve done all these tests and worked hard and we can’t give them the results,” he says. And the debacle over the tests leads Gabriel onto a wider point: “At the very least, the league tables should be scrapped this year because what they’re based on is too narrow.From my point of view, I’ve no particular problems with using a test. If test results are used by a school as part of teacher assessment – fine. [But] we’re trying to have a more creative curriculum and we’re being judged narrowly.
“Children should be judged against everything they do throughout the year, rather than a one-off week of testing. [As part of testing] children have to write about their best and worst moments. One of the papers this year said: ‘My worst moment was the revision for the SATs’. Children are not being tested in the way that they’re taught, and [testing] takes away the joy of learning, because they’re having to jump through hoops.”
