Delay 'likely' for school tables

The results for tests for 14 year olds showed a mixed picture

This year's school "league tables" in England are likely to be postponed because of the test marking problems.

Schools Minister Jim Knight said he expected the delays in marking and and appeals to push back publication.

Provisional figures for national tests suggest 14-year-olds did better in writing and maths this year but less well in reading and science.

A breakdown by local authorities has not been released as up to half the results were missing in some areas.

The schools minister said he expected the problems with the delivery of the tests to mean that the timetable for publication of school results would have to be pushed back.

Test problems

"I think it's likely that they won't be published at the same time as last year - because we've got a review process that's open for people to submit for reviews until September," said Mr Knight.

USUAL ANNUAL SCHEDULE May - Key Stage 2 and 3 tests taken by children aged 10/11 and 13/14 July - results returned to schools August - provisional national and local authority results published December - Key Stage 2 tables published showing results for each primary school January - Key Stage 3 tables published showing results of each secondary school January (not affected by the problems this year) - main secondary school and college tables based on results of public exams including GCSEs and A/AS-levels

"That inevitably has consequences for the timetable and being able to publish school results."

The league tables for primary schools, based on the Key Stage 2 results, are usually published each December with the Key Stage 3 tables in January.

The deadline for returning all the marked papers has been missed by more than a month already - there will be appeals over marking to be resolved in the autumn term before the results process will be complete.

Mr Knight said that this year's results for the tests taken by 14 year olds were "mixed" - with marginal rises and falls across subjects - but he rejected the suggestion that the figures had reached a plateau.

However he highlighted how much more difficult it became to push this figure higher - when more than two-thirds of those who had missed the Level 5 target either had special needs or spoke English as a second language.

"Each extra gain becomes harder to achieve for schools," said Mr Knight.

There had been a slight fall in English - from 74% to 73% - but within this there had been a fall to 69% in reading.

'Boys and books'

Mr Knight said that he wanted families to help encourage a love of reading, particularly among boys.

"It's the classic problem of boys and books," said Mr Knight. A more personalised approach to learning in school, more books aimed at keeping boys' attention and more support from families would help to improve boys' reading skills, he said.

2008 KEY STAGE 3 RESULTS LEVEL 5 English: 73% (74% last year) Maths: 77% (76%) Science: 71% (73%) LEVEL 6 English: 33% (32%) Maths: 57% (56%) Science: 41% (41%) Source: DCSF

Head teachers' leader John Dunford said that it was a “shame that this year’s marking controversy has overshadowed all the hard work that pupils and teachers have put in".

He also cautioned that "far too much is made each year of a percentage point or two up or down in the Key Stage 3 results in English, mathematics and science. What is important is that the trend is upwards, reflecting the rising standards in schools across the country".

The National Union of Teachers said the decision not to release the local figures was understandable - but none of the results should have been published in view of the delays and questions over the marking organised this year by private contractor ETS.

But Chris Keates, leader of the NASUWT teachers' union said the results were evidence of hard work and progress - and attacked those who queried the results.

"Sadly, but predictably, the critics have stepped forward to once again cast a shadow over the achievements of the pupils and their teachers

The general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), Dr Mary Bousted, said: the tests were an irrelevance.

"In a year when Sats have collapsed under their own weight, cutting the Key Stage 3 tests would be an excellent way to reduce the excessive amount of testing our students face."

Liberal Democrat children spokeswoman Annette Brooke agreed and said the money saved could be used to improve learning.

She said: "Ministers have once again failed to meet their own targets. After three years of secondary education, thousands of pupils are not reaching the expected level in key subjects.

"It's a disgrace that on the day the results have been published, many schools will still not yet have received their marked papers."

Shadow schools minister Nick Gibb said: "The government continues to miss its modest targets and we are left with the unacceptable position that two out of five 14-year-olds are failing to achieve the necessary grades in reading, writing and maths that they will need to be able to achieve at GCSE."

Statistical change

Statisticians at the Department for Children, Schools and Families, which issued the results, say comparisons with previous years are skewed by a change in the marking process.

This involved removing the practice known as "borderlining", which involved double checking all the test scripts with marks just below the benchmark level (but not above it), to see if they warranted any extra marks.

The effect is particularly significant in English, in which the marking is more subjective.

The statisticians say removing borderlining is estimated to reduce the percentage achieving Level 5 (the expected minimum level) by 0.9 percentage points in English, 0.2 points in maths and 0.6 points in science.

At Level 6 the effect is even more pronounced: about 1.6 percentage points in English, 0.3 in maths and 0.9 in science.

The figures show that the proportion of children attaining Level 5 in reading, writing, maths and science was 56% - down two percentage points on last year or roughly the amount predicted by the removal of borderlining.

The DCSF says the results were based on the data available at 25 July.

These included 84% of English results and 94% of the maths and science results, deemed to be a robust enough sample to produce reliable national figures.

Updated figures from the Qualifications and Curriuclum Authority show that the proportion of pupils' test results for 14 year olds now available to schools is 92.8% in English, 96.6% Maths and 96.0% science.

The tests - popularly known by the misnomer "Sats" - are a measure of children's achievement against targets in Key Stage 3 of the national curriculum, the first three years of secondary schooling in England.

There is no equivalent publication of test results for other parts of the UK.

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Please keep letting us know your experiences, using the form below:

Finally got out KS3 Maths results today (Tues 12/8), but no papers as yet. Science looked like it was marked by a blindfold chimp, English is all going to be sent back. What a mess this has all been. Time to go the way of the rest of the UK and ditch SATs completely.
Alan, Birmingham

We received a consignment of 90 marked KS3 maths papers from our 167 pupils, along with 40 papers (unmarked) from a school in Hendon (packed with labels indicating they were from our school. The following day, the online marking showed results for only 20 pupils (all those who had done the lower tier paper), indicating no result for most of the papers we had seen. The complete set of results has now been posted online, but I have yet to see the scripts. From a sample of 10, the marking seems to have been done professionally; it is the admin that is flawed.
Steve Akrill, Sawbridgeworth

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