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'Hard questions' over Sats fiasco Sats firm hits back at exam body
(about 23 hours later)
England's new exams regulators are to be grilled by MPs about this summer's test marking fiasco and whether it might be repeated next year. The company behind the "Sats shambles" has heaped much of the blame for delays in marking this year's national tests onto the exams body which employed it.
The Commons schools committee will also hear from a senior man in ETS Europe, which has now lost the test contract. Bosses from ETS Europe were grilled by MPs about this summer's test marking fiasco in England.
Some of England's schools still have not had national curriculum tests results returned to them, as the first postponed deadline for appeals passes. Philip Tabbiner, of ETS, told the Commons schools committee the company was very sorry for the delays.
The results should have been delivered before the summer break in July. But the National Assessment Agency - a division of the exams watchdog QCA - "shared significant responsibility".
Any appeals should have been lodged soon after. But the delays meant the appeals deadline being put back to 10 September or 10 days after the start of term, whichever is later. ETS had experienced "technical and operational problems", he said, but these were made worse by changes demanded by the NAA, which managed the contract on behalf of the QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority).
Dr Tabbiner said: "These issues were exacerbated by programme changes required by the NAA, long delays by NAA on key project decisions and layering on of additional project deliverables."
Philip Tabbiner of ETS said the NAA 'shared significant responsibility' for the delays
ETS' senior vice-president was giving the company's first full public account of what went wrong with the marking of this summer's tests, taken by 11 and 14-year-olds in England.
Contractually, he said, ETS had not been able to do that until now.
The contract was scrapped in August after an outcry over the delays.
But ETS bosses revealed to MPs they had asked to terminate the five-year contract in June.
They said they did this once it became clear they would suffer heavy financial losses because of the changes being demanded.
Dr Tabbiner said the NAA had gone against its advice and insisted on late changes to the way ETS was handling the tests and that had created considerable problems.
In March, he said, the NAA had told ETS it could not train markers online.
We ran into severe delays, we lost between three to five months .. as a result of NAA procrastinating Philip Tabbiner, ETS
The company had planned to train half of its pool of 10,000 markers online and half face-to-face - but was told by the NAA/QCA it had to run face-to-face training for all.
This led to problems related to having to organise venues and staff for training.
There had been no problems with the quality of the marking, he said.
He said: "There were a number of facets of the contract that were dictated for certain timing, but because of delays regarding the design of the online training, and the design of contracts with teachers, we ran into severe delays - we lost between three to five months depending on how you might look at that - in the cycle as a result of NAA procrastinating around decisions over the online training and the contracts for markers."
'Procrastinating'
Dr Tabbiner said his company had lost £50 million on the contract and had asked for it to be terminated in June this year.
When the contract was ended "by mutual consent" in August, it was announced that ETS would pay back £19.5m and cancel invoices worth £4.6m.
"This year we've lost £50 million as a result of this contract. We are a not-for-profit organisation - we have no shareholders, we're not traded on the public stock exchange - we're not in the position to absorb £50 million losses per annum, so for us it was a business decision, and that was the most expeditious one", Dr Tabbiner said.
The select committee also heard from the chair and the chief executive of the new exams and tests regulator Ofqual, Kathleen Tattersall, and Isabel Nisbet.
Kathleen Tattersall told MPs the problems went deeper than changes to the way markers were trained.
She said marking was slower than it should have been, that scripts did not move around quickly and efficiently enough and that the checking of the marking had "not been as effective as we had wished".
A lot of basic things didn't work Isabel Nisbet, Ofqual
Ofqual's chief executive Isabel Nisbet told MPs she could not comment about any changes to the contract, because Ofqual was not involved in that area.
But she said there had been general problems.
"A lot of basic things didn't work, not just about markers, but about systems and about management information, the fact it's been so difficult to know where all these scripts are, even today, and the fact that the communication was so poor," she said.
"There were systemic things that went wrong."
She also said that delays had been in part due to markers being required to enter marks for every item of every test paper online.
A separate, independent inquiry into the problems - led by a former Ofsted chief inspector, Lord Sutherland - is due to report in the autumn.
Some of England's schools still have not had their test results returned to them, as the first postponed deadline for appeals passes.
The results - of tests taken by children aged 11 and 14 in May - should have been delivered before the summer break in July.
Any appeals should have been lodged soon after. But the delays meant the appeals deadline was put back to 10 September or 10 days after the start of term, whichever is later.
The small percentage of schools that have still not yet had all their results do not have to lodge appeals until 10 days after finally receiving them.The small percentage of schools that have still not yet had all their results do not have to lodge appeals until 10 days after finally receiving them.
The select committee will hear from Dr Philip Tabbiner of ETS and from the chair and the chief executive of regulator Ofqual, Kathleen Tattersall, and Isabel Nisbet.
This is separate from an independent inquiry led by a former Ofsted chief inspector, Lord Sutherland, which is due to report in the autumn.
TemporaryTemporary
Committee chairman Barry Sheerman said the MPs would be asking "some difficult, hard questions". At the start of Wednesday's hearing, committee chairman Barry Sheerman said the issue was a very important one - which was why the committee was sitting even though Parliament was in recess.
"We want to find out what went wrong and how we avoid it happening again next year. "What happened in July has disappointed many parents and students," he said.
"There are very temporary arrangements in place for next year, to give the government the chance to think through how they are going to deal with Key Stage 2 and 3 testing."
Key Stage 2 tests are those taken at the end of primary school, by children aged 10 or 11.
Key Stage 3 marks the end of the first three years of secondary school in England, with tests being taken by those aged 13 or 14.
Fair
Mr Sheerman said the delays had caused a great deal of inconvenience for everyone involved.Mr Sheerman said the delays had caused a great deal of inconvenience for everyone involved.
Next year would be difficult, and the MPs want to hear from Ofqual what they believed the arrangements were that had been put in place by the government and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). Next year would be difficult, and the MPs wanted to hear from Ofqual what arrangements had been put in place by the government and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).
"We have had ministers in front of our committee, we have had the QCA, to be fair. We want to hear from all sides about what went wrong.
"A lot of people have said it's all the fault of this American firm - they didn't understand the scale of the task - but we haven't heard from them to give their opinions.
"We want to get to the bottom of what's happened, and I don't think we have got to the bottom of it yet. This is our opportunity to do so."
Schools Secretary Ed Balls has indicated that next year's Sats tests could be the last, replaced by "single level tests" now being piloted in schools.Schools Secretary Ed Balls has indicated that next year's Sats tests could be the last, replaced by "single level tests" now being piloted in schools.