Chief Regulator Glenys Stacey has written to the Secretary of State outlining our key recommendations into how accountability measures can be improved.

Download the letter

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Surveys were conducted in England with the general public, parents, students, teachers and headteachers (carried out by Ipsos MORI) and employers and Higher Education Institutions (carried out by Opinion Leader Research).

The surveys took place towards the end of 2012. The results are published in three documents: a summary report (produced by Ofqual); Perceptions of teachers and the general public; and Perceptions of employers and Higher Education Institutions. They are available on the www.ofqual.gov.uk website.

Main findings include:

• Confidence in the A level system was high among all respondent groups.
• Most respondent groups consider the GCSE a good qualification for students to obtain for their future.*
• Confidence in the GCSE system was lower than for the A level system and particularly low among teachers and headteachers (55 and 56 per cent respectively) and smaller employers (55 per cent).
• Concerns over quality of marking were expressed for both A levels and particularly GCSEs.
• Results suggest that, to some extent, confidence in GCSEs has been affected by the concerns around GCSE English grading in 2012.
• Awareness of Ofqual is growing slowly among respondents, however familiarity among the general public and employers is low.
• At least half the general public considered that other academic qualifications, vocational qualifications and mixed qualifications are of equal value to traditional academic qualifications.

*This question was not asked to teachers or headteachers.

The research was carried out by Ipsos MORI and Opinion Leader Research.

Notes for Editors

• For more information the media should contact the Ofqual press office on 0300 303 3342.
• The reports can be found here.
• Technical note: Ipsos MORI interviewed 3,213 members of the public, 416 parents and 254 students face-to-face and 600 teachers and 203 headteachers by telephone between November 2012 and January 2013. Opinion Leader Research interviewed 182 representatives in Higher Education Institutions and 500 employers by telephone between November 2012 and March 2013. All interviews were carried out in England.
• Details of the methodology, including information about the numbers of people spoken to and so on, can be found in the report.

The post Ofqual publishes annual survey of public attitudes to GCSEs and A levels appeared first on Ofqual.

The proposals, which would apply to GCSEs in England, would see:

• Speaking and listening assessment results no longer counting towards the overall grade
• Final grades calculated from written papers and the reading and writing controlled assessments only, with the weightings of the remaining components changed
• A new requirement for exam boards to report speaking and listening achievement separately on the GCSE certificate

Ofqual proposes to make these changes from summer 2014. This will mean changes for students currently in the first year of a two year course. But the proposals will not mean teachers having to change what they teach.

Currently, controlled assessment makes up 60 per cent of the marks for GCSE English (20 per cent speaking and listening and 40 per cent reading and writing), with written exams counting for 40 per cent. Our proposed option for re-weighting the remaining components would see written exams counting for 60 per cent of marks and controlled assessments counting for 40 per cent.

Ofqual’s investigation into the problems with GCSE English last summer found that the qualification was poorly designed, with this structure particularly vulnerable to the pressures of the accountability measures for schools.

Chief Regulator Glenys Stacey said: “Speaking and listening are, of course, very important skills. The proposals should not change what is taught in schools. These skills will still be assessed and the results will still be reported.

“But we have found that the design of the GCSE English qualification is seriously flawed. The proposed changes will make it more robust and will help protect against any repeat of the problems experienced last year. They will also mean a better balance between controlled assessment and written exams for the qualification.

“We want to hear what people think before we make our final decision.”

The consultation can be found at http://comment.ofqual.gov.uk/speaking-and-listening/

-Ends-

Notes to editors

1. For more information contact the Ofqual press office on 0300 303 3342 or 07798 924552 (out of hours).
2. Ofqual’s report on GCSE English in 2012 can be found here

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Download regulatory letter RO11/2013

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If you are a teacher, head teacher or an examiner we would like to hear from you by taking part in one of our short surveys.

Teachers and head teachers

We’d like to hear your views and understanding of the marking process and your perceptions of the quality of marking in exams taken at your school. The survey should take no longer than 10 minutes and closes on Friday, 31st May.

Take part in our teachers’ survey

Examiners

We would like to build up a better picture of quality of marking by hearing your experiences of examining and perceptions of the current system. We’d like to hear from you if you mark GCSEs or A levels or any equivalent qualification such as iGCSE, iGCE A level, Pre-U Diploma or IB Diploma.

The survey should take less than 15 minutes and will close on Friday, 10th May.

Take part in our examiners’ survey

Confidentiality

We will treat your answers in the strictest confidence and in line with the Data Protection Act. It will not be possible to identify any individual in our results.

If you have any questions about the survey please contact Caroline perry at caroline.perry@ofqual.gov.uk or on 024 7667 1866.

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Since summer 2011 we have introduced a system for awarding organisations to report question paper errors, and we have also categorised reported errors according to their severity.

Awarding organisations used the new reporting system for the first time in 2012 to inform us of question paper errors. There were far fewer serious errors in 2012.  A summary of the information reported to Ofqual and actions taken as a result can be found in our update.

The post Monitoring of question paper errors appeared first on Ofqual.

We expect the work to be finished this summer. We will make the training environment available again later this year after we have tested it fully.

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Timeline of changes.

GCSE reform.

AS and A level reform.

The post GCSE and A level reform appeared first on Ofqual.

The current ESOL regulations were put in place at different times between 2000 and 2008 by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), our predecessor body.  Since these regulations were introduced, there have been changes in the way ESOL qualifications are both used and regulated.  For example, in some cases ESOL Skills for Life qualifications are now being used to support immigration applications.  We have also found that ESOL qualifications are subject to a higher than usual incidence of malpractice.

From 10th September  to 3rd December 2012 we consulted on proposals to:

• Introduce Conditions of Recognition for a new qualification called ESOL for Life in the UK, subject to tighter regulations than existing ESOL qualifications, that would allow students to demonstrate they can meet the Home Office’s English language requirements, subject to Home Office criteria also being met;
• Publish Conditions for ESOL International qualifications, based on the existing ESOL International qualification criteria;
• Withdraw the existing regulations for ESOL Skills for Life (SfL) and ESOL for Work qualifications.  These qualifications would continue to be available to students, but regulated against our General Conditions of Regulation.

Ninety-five participants took part in consultation focus groups held in England and Northern Ireland and we also received 167 responses to our online consultation questionnaire.  We have published our independent evaluation of the responses to the consultation, which can also be found on the ESOL consultation.

Based upon the responses received to the consultation, and discussions that we have held with the UK Border Agency (UKBA), the Home Office, the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) and the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland, we have decided that:

• We will not introduce Conditions for a new qualification called ESOL for Life in the UK.  Most of the consultation respondents felt that existing ESOL qualifications already provided appropriate qualifications for UK entry, settlement and citizenship.  In April 2013 the Home Office announced that it would accept a range of qualifications – including Ofqual-regulated ESOL qualifications – as evidence of English language competence to meet the Home Office Knowledge of Language and Life (KoLL) requirement.  Applicants for UK settlement and citizenship will also need to pass the Home Office’s Life in the UK Test, which is subject to stringent security arrangements.  We consider that this will go some way to mitigating the current malpractice issues.  Therefore there is no requirement to introduce a new ESOL qualification for the purposes that were outlined at the time of our consultation
• We will introduce additional General Conditions of Recognition for ESOL International qualifications that will specify a consistent requirement for 100% external assessment and mapping to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).  There was support from stakeholders for both of these conditions 
• We will retain the additional regulation currently in place for ESOL Skills for Life (SfL).  This regulation requires ESOL SfL qualifications to demonstrate a clear relationship to the Adult ESOL Core Curriculum published by BIS.  The responses from the majority of stakeholders said that they wanted this relationship to continue.  In February 2013, the Skills Funding Agency announced it would continue to support only ESOL qualifications that are based on the National Standards for Adult Literacy and the Adult ESOL Core Curriculum.  Therefore we will retain this regulation in its current form
• We will withdraw the additional regulations currently in place for ESOL for Work.  These regulations are already covered by our General Conditions of Recognition and so this change removes duplication and streamlines regulation of this qualification

We will update the current criteria for ESOL Qualifications and General Conditions of Recognition to reflect the changes described above and publish these documents on our website.

The post Results of our ESOL consultation appeared first on Ofqual.

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