Dear friends
Alliance for Inclusive Education’s Campaigns Briefing
April 2014
As you know we have been really busy working on the Children and Families Bill.
Whilst it’s been an uphill struggle there have been some small victories elsewhere.
Over the past year, we have been tackling Michael Gove’s vision of a more ‘rigorous and elitist’ qualification system. From 2014, major GCSE and A Level reforms will start to roll out, with the purpose of ‘raising standards’!
We are keen to know from young people about their experiences of accessing and sitting both academic and vocational qualifications. For instance, does the grade awarded really reflect what you know? We are also interesting in hearing from everyone else – such as teachers, parents and exam markers.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
In solidarity,
Simone Aspis (Policy and Campaigns Coordinator)
Briefing Content Page Number
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Summary of the reforms and ALLFIE’s view 2
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Brief overview of the GCSE and A Level system 3
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Introduction of the English Baccalaureate 4
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Statement of Achievement 5
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Open Competition for exam boards to administer GCSE and
A level courses
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Replacing GCSE and A level coursework with end of course (terminal) examinations, to give the impression of a more rigorous assessment 6
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Tiering of examinations 7
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Different Grading structure
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Assessment exemptions and grading
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OFQUAL’s competency standards regulation
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Additional GCSE and A Level specific reforms
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Summing Up Michael Gove’s Drive for Higher Standards
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Alliance for Inclusive Education’s Campaigns Briefing
April 2014
Summary of the Exam Reforms
Last year Michael Gove wanted to make some big changes to the exams that young people take before leaving school:
To achieve EBAC certificate the student must pass six written exams in Maths, English Language or English Literature,
Geography, History, Language and Sciences. Students will not get the certificate if they failed one or more exams.
Students will be required to sit written examinations at the end of GCSE and A Level Courses. Students will no longer be assessed on coursework, field work and project work throughout the course.
Exam bodies must provide 5 marks for how well students can use the rules of written English covering (spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Only one GCSE and A Level course will be available for young people to sit. There will no longer be choice of courses on offer by different exam boards.
New GCSE grades 1-9 will replace grades A*-G. The idea is that it will be harder to get the “good” grade demanded by employers and universities.
Where possible, all students will take one exam regardless of ability.
The Government has asked examination bodies to provide a statement of achievement on achievement in examinations for all students, including those who may have failed to achieve the full EBAC award.
What has the Government done since the EBAC consultation?
The Government have dropped the EBAC and the statement of achievement awards.
They have decided to make some big changes to GCSEs and A Levels.
ALLFIE’s View
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Alliance for Inclusive Education’s Campaigns Briefing
April 2014
If the Government introduces the EBAC award either alongside or replacing GCSE subjects then it will be bad news for disabled students. It would mean that GCSEs will be viewed as second best, and students who cannot achieve the EBAC award would be disadvantaged.
ALLFIE does not agree that young people who have failed to get their EBAC should only gain a Statement of Achievement which could be perceived as an EBAC failure award.
ALLFIE does not agree that gaining qualifications should be made harder. At the moment students can show what they know producing coursework, such as presentations, essays, art and drama work and alike, during the lifetime of the course.
End of Course testing can present difficulties for some students.
We think that exams should assess what students know about their subject not how good their writing skills are.
Overall we think the Government’s GCSE and A Level changes will be unfair for disabled students who may not be able to do well taking lots of subjects exams all in one sitting.
Returning to end of year exams will make it very hard for disabled people with learning difficulties and physical impairments, which may need longer time or tire easily. If the aim of terminal exams is to make them harder and to increase the possibility of failure, disabled learners are more likely to lose out than their non-disabled peers by Michael
Gove’s changes to the exam system.
Overview of the GCSE and A Level system
The 1987 Conservative Government replaced the old two tier system (O level and CSE) with GCSEs. Evidence that the O Level and CSE system created inequality of opportunity for learners was mounting, and the Conservative Government decided to have one school leaving certificate, the GCSE, to cover the breadth of the ability across the school population. Over the past 30 years there have a number of GCSE reforms covering the range and types of subjects, the length and breadth of course content, the range of assessment methods and a move from norm to criterion referenced grading systems. At a higher level, A Levels consist of AS and A2 examination papers and are assessed by examination and coursework. Until the current reforms both GCSE and A
Levels have been modular, meaning that assessment can be undertaken on a
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Alliance for Inclusive Education’s Campaigns Briefing
April 2014 continuous basis or on completion of the course. The 1987 reforms have led to more candidates taking these qualifications, including those who are disabled with a wider range of abilities. Whilst greater numbers of disabled students may be sitting examinations, it does not mean the actual assessments themselves underpin ALLFIE’s inclusive education principles.
Since Michael Gove became Secretary of State for Education in 2010, the positive reforms to GCSE and A Level qualifications have come under attack.
Introduction of the English Baccalaureate
It is the Government’s intention that the English Baccalaureate certificate be awarded to students who achieved five GCSEs (Grade A*-C), including English, mathematics, history or geography, the sciences and a language. What is noticeably missing is the inclusion of Arts and Music, Religious studies and vocational subjects. This means that many young people with an interest in the Arts might not achieve the prestigious new
EBAC award.
The Government also wanted to introduce EBAC certificates in subjects with a more demanding curriculum, to sit alongside GCSE and other certificates. EBAC course certificates would be ‘more rigorous’, examined by terminal examinations, and they would have with a different grading system to GCSEs.
The Government did not think about how the EBAC would impact upon GCSEs and the uptake of non EBAC courses. Art based courses, in particular, provide opportunities for disabled students, who are not academic, to gain accreditation for their talents.
However, with the ever increasing pressure of performance league tables for schools, it is likely that schools will reduce access to courses such as drama, music, and art as these subject areas decrease in value.
Even if Arts based qualifications are on offer, these subjects are likely to appear to be second best, taken by students unable to cope with the ‘rigour’ of EBAC certificates.
Effectively, the EBAC would result in some subjects gaining greater status than others.
The EBAC reforms are perceived by many as nothing more than an attempt to make the lives of university admissions tutors easier by sorting out the “able” from the “less able” students.
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Alliance for Inclusive Education’s Campaigns Briefing
April 2014
ALLFIE is particularly concerned that the EBAC would encourage the further increase in segregated courses for disabled learners, or those who, for whatever reason, could not achieve the new gold standard of the EBAC.
ALLFIE’s view
ALLFIE is very concerned that history could be repeating itself, with the EBAC and GCSEs resulting in a new two tier system, replacing O levels and CSEs. GCSEs would be seen as second best qualifications taken by students without the ability to sit the more prestigious EBAC certificate. Further, the EBAC subject range would be held in higher esteem than Arts and vocational subject range by students, teachers, and college and university admissions tutors. ALLFIE is not alone in criticising the Government’s EBAC reforms. The Education Select Committee has been very critical of the EBAC reforms.
The Department for Education has received hundreds of responses suggesting that the
EBAC is divisive and would result in a return to a two tier system.
It is completely unacceptable and discriminatory to bring in a suite of qualifications that will affect disabled learners more than those who are non- disabled. Disabled learners are more likely than their non-disabled peers to experience failure in examinations, as the standards are set according to non-disabled students’ abilities. Candidates with dyslexia and dyscalculia are less likely to gain English and Mathematics Grade A*-C at
GCSE than their non-disabled peers. ALLFIE believes there are alternative ways of encouraging candidates to achieve across different curriculum strands without introducing a new qualification. After the Department for Education’s consultation, the EBAC was quietly dropped by Michael Gove which is a major achievement for us.
Statement of Achievement
Currently students are only graded on their examination performance. As part of exam reforms, the Department for Education’s qualification bodies will be providing a
Statement of Achievement outlining student’s actual achievements in their examinations and coursework for everyone.
ALLFIE’s view
ALLFIE would welcome student profiles for everyone regardless whether they have or have not passed their EBAC examinations (if introduced). However, if the Statement of
Achievement was only going to be given to those who don’t achieve an EBAC, then the
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Alliance for Inclusive Education’s Campaigns Briefing
April 2014 such a certificate would be deeply unhelpful. The Statement of Achievement, like all the other entry level qualifications aimed at students with learning difficulties, would provide nothing more than a piece of paper stating failure to achieve in ‘real’ exams such as GCSE and EBAC (if introduced). On the basis of wide spread criticism, Michael
Gove has now dropped the Statement of Achievement certificate.
Open Competition for exam boards to administer GCSE and A level courses
After dropping the EBAC reforms, the Government pressed ahead instead with reforming GCSEs and A Level qualifications. To ‘raise standards’, the Government wants to invite qualification bodies to tender for the administration of GCSE and A Level qualifications. Under the proposal, only one qualification body will be allowed to administer a subject qualification. The course will be prescribed by the Department for
Education and supported by elite universities, from the Russell Group. For example, only one qualification body will be allowed to administer a GCSE or A Level English
Language examination. The Government’s proposal would replace the current arrangement, under which GCSE and A Level subject courses can be offered by one or more qualification bodies.
ALLFIE’s view
ALLFIE has been very concerned to hear the proposal that GCSE and A Level subject courses would only be offered by one qualification body. It would mean less choice of in terms of course syllabuses We are concern that if elite universities are involved in deciding on the course syllabus then it’s very likely that those courses deemed to be of less value such as women’s and disability issues, may disappear. Thankfully this proposal has now been abandoned, as Government refocuses its attention on reforming current GCSE and A Level arrangements.
Replacing GCSE and A level course work with end of course terminal examinations to give the impression of a more rigorous assessment
Currently GCSE and A Levels are modular, so that candidates can sit the exams at the end of courses with modules or on completion of the whole course. Modular courses
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Alliance for Inclusive Education’s Campaigns Briefing
April 2014 provide flexibility so that students can undertake assessments throughout the course and year. However, current flexibility will be replaced by GCSE and A Levels being linear, with end of course terminal examinations.
ALLFIE’s view
Replacing the current assessment with terminal examinations on completion of courses will make it much harder for disabled candidates. Whilst non-disabled candidates may take an advantage of modular assessment, nevertheless the consequences of changing to linear assessments are likely to be far reaching for disabled learners. For example, students with physical impairments may have decided to undertake assessment in a modular format as it means having fewer exams to do in one go. With the changes, disabled students will have no choice other than to take fewer GCSEs and A Levels, which is likely to limit their options in the future.
A range of assessment methods provide opportunities for candidates to demonstrate their subject knowledge in different ways. Under the current arrangements Disabled learners, who may experience difficulty in sitting examinations, have had opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge through different methods such as assessment of project work, essay writing, producing an artefact or carrying out a field study.
Returning to end of course/terminal examinations will have a significant negative impact upon disabled candidates.
Tiering of examinations
Currently some GCSEs may require one or more examination. GCSE subjects such as
Art, Drama and Sociology now have a single examination that will be taken by all candidates carrying the full range of grades. GCSE subjects, such as Mathematics and
Science currently have different examination papers, geared to students of a particular ability. For example, a Foundation paper may cover GCSE Grades C-G whilst a Higher paper covers content expected at Grade A*-D. Papers are tiered, so that students can sit examinations which are supposed to be geared to their ability range.
The Government has recognised that tiering could limit candidates’ aspirations and think this needs to be reviewed. A rare occasion where we could support the
Government! Disabled learners that have been entered for foundation papers as a
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Alliance for Inclusive Education’s Campaigns Briefing
April 2014 result of teachers’ stereotyping and prejudice about their ability to achieve at a higher level, denies them the opportunity to aspire to the next level. OFQUAL have decided that the only GCSE that will remain tiered is Mathematics.
Different Grading structure
Currently GCSEs have 9 pass grades ranging from A*-G. The Government is considering replacing A*-G with a 1-9 point grading system to signal greater rigour in the marking process. Changes in the grading system will mean more grades at the higher end, with fewer grades at the lower end of the marking scheme. The intention of an alternative grading structure is again to make it easier for universities to distinguish between individuals with ‘greater academic abilities’.
Assessment exemptions and grading
Currently disabled candidates can access 100% of the marks, even if they do not sit an examination component. For example, disabled students that do not take the speaking and listening component of the GCSE English Language exam still have access to all the grades. The grade is determined by the number of marks student is awarded on the assessment components of the written paper. OFQUAL is reviewing the assessment exemptions and grading policy which qualification bodies must use.
ALLFIE’s view
Grades can never fully reflect what candidates can do. Grades change over time, depending on course content, criteria, individual markers preferences and assessment exemptions, qualification awarding bodies and qualification regulators. For example, the GCSE English Language Grades marking boundaries, changed as a result of the
Government’s complaint that too many candidates achieved a Grade C. ALLFIE wants an assessment system that reflects the real levels individuals have attained not levels driven by political pressure.
OFQUAL Competency Standards
OFQUAL have the power to determine competency standards for many regulated academic examinations. If OFQUAL believes that competency standards are being undermined, they are able to direct when it is not appropriate for qualification bodies to make reasonable adjustments for disabled candidates.
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Alliance for Inclusive Education’s Campaigns Briefing
April 2014
Since 2012, OFQUAL’s list of vetoed ‘reasonable adjustments’ include:
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Human readers being used when a candidate’s reading ability is being assessed.
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Human scribes and voice recognition systems being used to demonstrate written skills where those written skills form part of the qualification’s assessment objectives.
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British Sign Language being used when candidates are required to demonstrate their ability to speak or listen in English or a Modern Foreign Language.
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Practical assistants being used to help to carry out physical tasks or demonstrate physical abilities where those physical tasks or abilities form part of the qualification’s assessment objectives.
More information on OFQUAL’s “Specifications in Relation to the Reasonable
Adjustment of General Qualifications – Fulfilling Our Regulatory Powers Under Section
96 if the Equality Act 2010” can be found online: http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/files/2011-12-15-specifications-in-relation-to-thereasonable-adjustment-of-general-qualifications.pdf
ALLFIE’s view
OFQUAL’s Competency Standards and the restrictions they impose on reasonable adjustments do not take into account the way disabled people participate in learning.
For instance, a disabled person may use a communication aid when holding a conversation, or giving a presentation, and it would be generally considered that they are communicating independently with the help of such an aid. From this it can be concluded that the central feature of communication, for communication aid users, is not the movement of the mouth, but the use of technology – a position that is not shared by OFQUAL.
Similarly, the primary purpose of laboratory experiments is not to demonstrate physical coordination, rather it is the opportunity to demonstrate understanding of a given experiment, and consider its results and findings. For this reason it is feasible for a personal assistant/support worker to undertake the lab work, under the supervision of the disabled person, which then allows the disabled person to construct the experiment, interpret the results and write up the findings. For OFQUAL, the central feature of science assessments is that it is the disabled person who must do all
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Alliance for Inclusive Education’s Campaigns Briefing
April 2014 elements. These two examples give a clear indication of the way that OFQUAL’s
Competency Standards fail to represent everyday acceptable practice in the UK. In fact, if the OFQUAL guidelines are followed, it is possible that Higher Education institutions who do not allow disabled students to use their communication aids during an aural examination or use a personal assistant in a laboratory examination, could find themselves on the wrong side of the Equality Act.
As we are going to press, we understand that OFQUAL will be undertaking another review of their Competency Standards.
Additional GCSE and A Level specific reforms
In addition to major reforms to GCSE and A Levels arrangements, there are other reforms that will also have a substantial impact on the assessment of disabled candidates’ subject knowledge.
Awarding marks for Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation (SGP) in subjects which are highly regarded by universities.
Qualification bodies will be required to set aside 5% of the marks for candidates spelling, punctuation and grammar in English literature, history, geography and religious studies exams.
ALLFIE’s view
The Government has forged ahead with its new SGP policy despite OFQUAL’s Equality
Impact Assessment highlighting that disabled candidates may be substantially disadvantaged. Apart from English Language, ALLFIE doesn’t see why there is a need to allocate marks solely on the basis of the candidates’ command of written English.
Further, disabled students may find themselves being steered away from courses that are subject to SPG policy. What is being assessed should be subject knowledge. As
OFQUAL’s EAI highlights the SGP policy is discriminatory for disabled candidates, particularly those who are dyslexic.
Removing Speaking and Listening components from the GCSE English Language assessment process
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Alliance for Inclusive Education’s Campaigns Briefing
April 2014
Unless an exemption is given, candidates must complete Speaking and Listening assessment as a component of the GCSE English Language assessment. As there is no standardised way of assessing Speaking and Listening, the Government wants to remove this component from the GCSE English Language qualification.
ALLFIE’s view
The Government is limiting the English Language curriculum to written English. It would be a great loss if children and young people do not have the opportunity to practice their speaking abilities in the classroom. The assessment requirement provides opportunities for both disabled and non disabled people to learn how to communicate with each other. Further, disabled students with a flair for speaking may find they can compensate for their written work when being assessed. ALLFIE suspects that the real reason for removing the Speaking and Listening component is to make the examination harder, so that fewer candidates are awarded a C Grade.
Rather than removing this component, ALLFIE wants reform to the current Speaking and
Listening assessment, so that disabled candidates could use their communication aids to demonstrate an ability to speak and listen.
AS Level changes
AS levels will no longer contribute to A Level marks and grades. AS Levels will be standalone examinations that are pitched at a standard between GCSE and A Levels.
If you want to know more about OFQUAL’s GCSE and A Level reforms – follow the link http://ofqual.gov.uk/news/tags/gcse-reform/
Summing Up Michael Gove’s Drive for Higher Standards
The Michael Gove-led qualifications reforms, including EBAC, Statement of
Achievement and GCSEs, taken as a whole will lead to increasing numbers of students being let down and disaffected by the education system. A return to the streaming and segregation of young people according to their intellectual and physical abilities, and corralling them onto discrete courses with low status outcomes, amounts to a return to the educational apartheid of the 1970s. This approach will limit educational progression, giving students achieving the EBAC the advantage of accessing A Level
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Alliance for Inclusive Education’s Campaigns Briefing
April 2014 courses, and disadvantaging those without the EBAC, who will only be able to access downgraded vocational courses.
Making examinations harder and increasing the rate of failure will not automatically lead to an improvement in educational standards. To the contrary, ALLFIE believes that educational standards for schools and colleges will worsen, since growing numbers of young people are likely to be removed from subjects perceived as challenging, due the focus shifting to getting more able students through the EBAC award.
For many disabled children, who would have benefited from being enrolled onto GCSE courses, the only option left open to them will be ‘life skills’ courses. As Michael Gove imposes the EBAC, a system based on the School Leavers Certificate -a model from the last century - history will inevitably repeat itself. Increasing numbers of students will be failed by the education system. What lessons have been learnt – none it seems!
Whilst there may have made some small victories in relation to some of the current education reforms, there are still many of the reforms that are going to make it increasingly hard for disabled students to benefit from education system as it exists now and into the future.
SO the campaign work still needs to go on!
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