Lord Sutherland’s inquiry into SATs last year says that the QCA watchdog “failed its remit”. As a result the QCA has disbanded its assessment agency and suspended chief executive Ken Boston. Lord Sutherland told a news conference in London there had been a culture within the QCA and its National Assessment Agency (NAA) that “it’ll be all right on the night”.
The report found that primary responsibility for this summer’s failures fell at the feet of ETS Europe. It said:
“The inquiry believes that ETS was responsible for ensuring its delivery model worked. In practice, it is clear that ETS failed to conduct such testing as was necessary to ensure that its process and systems were fit for purpose and could deliver. In practice, failures occurred at almost every stage of the test delivery process in 2008 from the registration of pupils to the presentation of results.”
The QCA was blamed for failing to identify relevant information regarding ETS’s reputation and track record, which has previously been brought into question in the US. The report said:
“The QCA should have carried out additional due diligence to assess potential suppliers’ reputation and track record. Had such checks been conducted, a more rounded understanding of the suppliers could have been formed.”
In a statement responding to Lord Sutherland’s independent inquiry, Ed Balls said:
“The delivery of this summer’s National Curriculum tests for 11 and 14 year olds was a shambles. I want to say to all the teachers, pupils, parents and markers who have been affected, how sorry I am for all their inconvenience, stress and frustration. What happened this year was completely unacceptable. It was because I was determined to get to the bottom of exactly what went wrong and to make sure that it does not happen again that, in July, I asked Lord Sutherland to conduct an independent inquiry. I laid a copy of Lord Sutherland’s final report before the House at 2.30pm this afternoon. I have already acted to ensure that all his recommendations will be implemented in full.”
Lord Sutherland’s full report can be read here: http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0809/hc00/0062/0062.asp
