School Gate blog: why Key Stage 3 tests should be scrapped

The scrapping of national curriculum tests for 11 and 14-year-olds moved one step closer yesterday after the company that bungled the marking of this year’s exams was sacked.

ETS Europe, a US-company that had won a £156 million contract to administer Key Stage 2 and 3 tests, was ordered to repay £24.1 million to the Government from the £39.6 million it had already been paid. This will leave it hugely out of pocket and its reputation in tatters.

The chaos surrounding this year’s Key Stage tests sat by 1.2 million children in England has caused acute embarrassment to the Government.

But the decision to end the five-year contract with ETS four years early is also being seen by ministers as an opportunity to bring forward plans to reform the much-hated tests.

Last night Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, said that while he wanted to run “straightforward, tried and tested” Key Stage tests next year, he was “open-minded” about what form tests might take after that.

“The termination of the ETS contract provides us with the problem. But it also provides us with an opportunity,” he told The Times.

Some teaching unions have urged the Government to replace externally marked tests with internal teacher assessment.

Mr Balls insisted that testing at 11 and 14 must contain an element of “external validation”, but conceded that this might take the form of internal marking that was then validated by external markers. “Nothing is being ruled out or in,” he said.

The Government is already trying a new system of single-level testing, in which children sit “less formal” papers twice a year. Children are entered only when their teachers assess they are capable of passing, in much the same way as the grade tests for music exams.

Mr Balls said: “With these (single-level) tests, it’s more in the hands of the teachers. You could combine this with teacher assessment.” He stressed that the new contract would be for only one year, allowing reforms to be introduced as early as 2010.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the government agency in charge of the national curriculum tests, now has just nine months to find a replacement for ETS before next year’s tests are due to take place in May 2009.

This is roughly half the time that ETS, which had a history of failure in the US before it was signed up by the QCA, had to set up its system.

The QCA will now invite other exam boards to take over tests for next year. The biggest exam board, AQA, has said that it would not be bidding for the contract. The OCR board last night described it as a “reputation-damaging job”, but did not rule itself out of the bidding. Edexcel, which administered the tests before ETS and which unsuccessfully bid for the last contract (it was outbid by £9 million), said only that it was “willing to provide any support” to the QCA.

ETS’s handling of the tests descended into chaos within weeks of children sitting the papers in mid-May.

Many markers (mostly teachers trying to earn some extra cash) left after being unable to contact ETS, papers went missing and teachers complained about inaccurate marking. Thousands of papers have still not been returned to schools.

Michael Gove, the Tory Schools Secretary, yesterday expressed outrage that ETS would be walking away with millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. But in fact the company stands to lose a huge amount of money. Its five-year contract was worth £156 million. It has already received £35 million.

Under the official agreement to dissolve the contract, it will forfeit £4.6 million in outstanding payments and must hand back £19.5 million in cash. The £15.5 million it is left with will fall far short of covering the costs of developing a new computerised training and data system, and delivering and marking this year’s tests.

Mr Balls said the Government had ended up with “a better deal than anybody expected”, but admitted there would be extra costs in finding a new contractor.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that it would be “a tall order” to recruit the necessary markers for next year because so many had lost confidence in the testing system. Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, suggested that the tests be replaced by a new system of teacher assessment.

The decision to dump ETS will increase pressure on Ken Boston, head of the QCA, to resign. Any such decision is unlikely to be made until the autumn, after publication of the Government’s independent inquiry, chaired by Lord Sutherland of Houndwood, into the marking fiasco.

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