This year’s Sats results have been delayed by a week following marking problems. Ed Balls wrote to the Chair of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee, Barry Sheerman, to inform him that the National Assessment Agency (NAA) expects there to be some delays to the release of Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 national curriculum test results to schools. According to the NAA site, which includes a FAQ about the lateness of the results:
“The arrangements for marking the national curriculum tests this year have been different from previous years. There is a new marking contractor, ETS Europe, and a series of additional checks to give greater assurance of high quality marking.
The main causes of this delay are the lateness in the completion of the marking process and a series of technical issues. This is a serious failure by ETS Europe for which we apologise to schools, pupils and parents.
We understand that this delay will inconvenience many schools, and we share their frustration and disappointment. The National Assessment Agency will take every measure at its disposal to ensure that all results are delivered as quickly as possible. “
The BBC have a good “What went wrong” analysis for those that want the full details!
What does this mean to schools? Detailed results and end-of-year reports, annoyed children and parents and the question which I’m sure every teacher is ansking themselves – what was wrong with the way it was marked last year!
We, as I’m sure every school that’s had the papers back, has gone through and added them up themselves and used the thresholds to work out the level!
