The effects of accountability measures in English secondary schools: early and multiple entry to GCSE Mathematics assessments

Taylor, Rachel

doi:10.1080/03054985.2016.1197829

Cited by 10 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The percentage of WRG pupils at each school in 2012 was also correlated ( r = 0.5) with multiple entry in GCSE mathematics, another method used by some schools to improve performance measures that was tackled in the government's response to the Wolf review (Taylor, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the Wolf reforms on education outcomes for lower‐attaining pupils

Burgess

Thomson²

2019

British Educational Res J

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Between 2004 and 2012, there had been a significant rise in so‐called ‘equivalent’ qualifications taken by young people in England in the final years of their compulsory schooling. These were qualifications other than GCSEs that were approved for young people under the age of 16 under Section 96 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000. This rise was checked by the Wolf review of vocational education, which led to wholesale changes in the set of qualifications that schools offered to pupils, and which primarily affected lower‐attaining students. We quantify the impact of this reform on these pupils with respect to the qualifications they entered and what they achieved. We do so by comparison to previous national cohorts of pupils unaffected by the reform, including the estimation of counterfactual outcomes for the group of pupils most likely to be affected. These pupils tended to enter fewer qualifications overall after the reform than their predecessors, but with a higher fraction of GCSEs. Age‐16 attainment fell, with a lower percentage achieving level 2 of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). This finding is repeated in the post‐16 outcome measures, which were stable throughout this period. There is no evidence from the attainment data that these reforms helped low‐attaining pupils.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the Wolf reforms on education outcomes for lower‐attaining pupils

Burgess

Thomson²

2019

British Educational Res J

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“…Outcomes for modular and linear assessment routes are intertwined with the standard‐setting process. No standard‐setting process is infallible, and weaknesses of the ‘comparable outcomes’ approach to standard setting—in which prior attainment at age 11 is used to predict GCSE outcomes for a particular examination entry for each syllabus (Ofqual, )—complicate interpretation of the findings; specifically, the issue of non‐random entry to routes as reported by Taylor ().…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Taylor () conducted semi‐structured interviews with secondary school teachers in England to explore how the pressure of school performance measures impacts behaviour in schools. One of the strategies reported involved switching students between modular and linear GCSEs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Outcomes for modular and linear assessment routes are intertwined with the standard-setting process. No standard-setting process is infallible, and weaknesses of the 'comparable outcomes' approach to standard setting-in which prior attainment at age 11 is used to predict GCSE outcomes for a particular examination entry for each Examination structure and the equity gap 433 syllabus (Ofqual, 2015)-complicate interpretation of the findings; specifically, the issue of non-random entry to routes as reported by Taylor (2016). Taylor (2016) conducted semi-structured interviews with secondary school teachers in England to explore how the pressure of school performance measures impacts behaviour in schools.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The SES equity gap and the reform from modular to linear GCSE mathematics

Moira

Meadows

Baird

2019

British Educational Res J

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This article addresses whether the introduction of end‐of‐course, linear General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations changed the socio‐economic equity gap in England. The GCSE is a national examination offered in a wide range of subjects and taken by almost the entire 16‐year‐old age cohort. Between the years 2007 and 2014, it underwent a number of reforms to both the underlying curriculum and the examination structure. At the beginning of the period, examinations were primarily modular in structure where the course was decomposed into discrete units tested in a staged manner. By 2014, all GCSE examinations were linear and the whole course content was tested simultaneously when study was complete. These structural changes and the curriculum reforms mean that the impact of modular and linear testing on the performance of students has been the focus of recent interest. Some educational commentators suggested that modular examinations are more suitable for lower‐performing students, including those with lower socio‐economic status (SES). This research has been conducted to monitor the socio‐economic equity gap in the light of the structural changes. It focuses on GCSE mathematics and concludes that, although there is still a clear gap in attainment between disadvantaged students and their peers, this gap does not seem to be exacerbated by the examination structure. In other words, the linearisation of GCSE mathematics is unlikely to have increased inequity between students of high and low SES.

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“…modular or linear) suggest that it can significantly affect the ways that they experience their curriculum. One aspect of modularity that has impacted significantly in recent years is the early entry of students into modules in order for schools to gauge performance and optimise outcomes (Taylor, 2016). Student responses suggested that some schools are using early entry to maximise the number of qualifications students take, therefore ensuring that they perform to their best on at least some of them.…”

Section: Gcse Structures: Modularity Vs Linearitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Young people’s views on choice and fairness through their experiences of curriculum as examination specifications at GCSE

Barrance

Elwood

2018

Oxford Review of Education

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This paper presents data that considers ways in which young people experience the curriculum through the lens of subject examination syllabuses (for GCSEs), their associated assessment techniques and structures and educational policies at national and school level concerning subject choice. Drawing upon an original qualitative dataset from a mixed-methods study of students' views and experiences of GCSE from Northern Ireland (NI) and Wales, the paper explores students' perceptions of choice and fairness in relation to studying various subjects at GCSE. Factors of importance are the subjects available to them through subject option selections at the school level and the ways in which GCSE courses are then administered. In relation to notions of choice and fairness, the paper considers how students see access to the curriculum moderated by national and school level decisions regarding the assessment of GCSEs; the extent to which assessment techniques such as tiering, controlled assessment and modularity, as well as school-level policy decisions about timing of entry to GCSEs (known as early entry) all combine to restrict students' access to the full range of subjects and influence the ways in which they experience these subjects as curricula within their particular school settings.

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The effects of accountability measures in English secondary schools: early and multiple entry to GCSE Mathematics assessments

Cited by 10 publications

References 21 publications

The impact of the Wolf reforms on education outcomes for lower‐attaining pupils

The impact of the Wolf reforms on education outcomes for lower‐attaining pupils

The SES equity gap and the reform from modular to linear GCSE mathematics

Young people’s views on choice and fairness through their experiences of curriculum as examination specifications at GCSE

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