The marking of England's national tests is in disarry because of administrative blunders. Many teachers say that they have quit as markers in protest at organisational mistakes surrounding the KS2 and KS3 tests.
It seems that ETS Europe are to blame for this. The TES forum has been flooded with 1500 comments posted by markers. They are angry that crucial training events have not been completed yet. Many said that they had not been given information about the location of the training, or had been asked to travel hundreds of miles at the last minute.
Markers also said that they were frustrated by ETS Europe's inability to respond helpfully to requests for information. One marker said she mad never seen such problems since the introduction of the national tests. "We all deserve better than this fiasco," she said.
Andy Latham, ETS vice-president, said, "I apologise to all the markers who have experienced frustration with the training and the standardisation process. We remain firmly committed to our July 8 deadline for the delivery of the results."
Great.
Sunday 18 May 2008
SATs marking fiasco
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4 comments:
Beware... I fear there is no light at the end of the ETS tunnel. If the current shambles is anything to go by we are in for a dark, gloomy future.
As a KS3 marker, I've got to the stage of near hysteria with ETS - both the crazy and the hilarious sort!!! I cannot believe the absolute debacle it has been, nor how they are getting away with it. These are national tests, for God's sake! Apart from the Benchmarking, EVERYTHING else has gone wrong - contracts; training; standardising; verification; mark capturing; script deliveries - you name it. The press, so far, has only touched on the tip of the iceberg in terms of what it is reporting. And the reponse of ETS and the NAA (are they really in the dark about it) are gobsmacking. God help us when it comes to being paid!!!!!
I'm a retired deputy head and applied to be marker. As I have been retired for over 5 years I put my ex-head and my GP as referees. 3 weeks later I received 2 letters; one addressed to me as a GP asking for a reference for someone I've never heard of and the other addressed to me as head of the school asking for a reference for my ex-head! I phoned up and was told load of people were complining about the same thing. I followed up with a letter but have heard nothing since. What an utter shambles!
It is now the 17th June and I am still waiting for some of my scripts to be delivered! Need I say more!
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