End league table era

26th October 2001, 1:00am

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End league table era

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/end-league-table-era
The Secondary Heads Association has set out its vision for the reform of post-14 education in its official response to the Government’s White Paper, Schools Achieving Success.

SHA is seeking the abolition of league tables, an end to the vocationalacademic divide and a radical reform of the exam system. It wants a unified framework of qualifications, and modular GCSE courses that offer a better progression from age 14 to advanced qualifications.

John Dunford, SHA’s general secretary, said the exam system was too time-consuming, confused and costly. More emphasis should be placed on rigorous, high-quality, internal school assessments, conducted by teachers qualified as chartered examiners.

Students should be awarded a final certificate, recognising their full range of achievements, but SHA believes that an International Baccalaureate approach would not suit the full ability range.

The association recommends :

* All courses should be a balance of the theoretical and practical.

* A new framework of post-14 modular courses should be developed, building on the current ASA2 and vocational approach.

* Courses and qualifications should not be age-related.

* Achievement at general and A-level should contribute to a Graduation Certificate at both levels. Students must show success in key skills, work experience and practical citizenship.

SHA is convinced that assessment requires a radical review, not least because the modular AS-levels highlighted the problem of adding new external exams to an already over-examined system.

Modular assessment is the best way to develop a post-14 qualifications system, says SHA, and the way forward is to create chartered examiners. These would be teachers with at least four years’ experience of teaching their specialism. They would take part in three to five days of training and testing administered by the awarding bodies.

Each large subject department of a school or college should have several chartered examiners, SHA says. They would be responsible for carrying out or overseeing rigorous internal assessment that should form a substantial proportion of externally-awarded qualifications.

“14 and beyond: proposals for the development of a coherent post-14 education framework”, is available from SHA, 130 Regent Road, Leicester, LE1 7PG. Tel:0116 299 1122. Fax:0116 299 1123, price pound;8.00 or free on e-mail: gillian.rawson@sha.org.uk Diane Spencer

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