I wish Ofqual/DFE would decide how they are going to publish updates, as it really is getting tedious hunting down information about the whole accreditation process. Just don’t be thinking it’ll make me give up because I am a stubborn hard-nosed sod! I am aware that there are more letters of complaints/with comments on winging their way to Ofqual too … I’m on the case hunting those down over the next couple of days (BTW Ofqual if you’re reading this you now have 16 days left on the FOI for a copy of Nick Gibbs letter I mention here -> NOPE – Not giving up!
Looking for information today I looked here:
NOPE … NOTHING TO SEE HERE
I do wonder why they aren’t publishing everything on their publications page. I think this … um … (what’s the proper word for UNTRANSPARENT?) shady way of doing stuff is just wrong. It stinks! It smells of someone covering their backside, and doing it badly. I did eventually find something here:
Soooo down wi’da’ kids
The latest … (remember I mentioned on an earlier blog post that I reckon they are using the services of a PR/Media “expert” … well I suspect they’ve taken advice about how to engage with certain members of the teaching community!) … was published on something called the Ofqual “blog”. Funnily enough there is nothing on this so-called blog since the start of December. Is it possible that they are trying to get “down wi’da’kids” and joining us in the 21st century? or is it just a ploy to say “well we published it. It isn’t our fault you aren’t checking EVERYWHERE on the internet for updates!”. I wonder what the next teacher update (haven’t had one for a while!) will say about all this.
The “blogpost” -> HERE refers to the video that I blogged about (HERE IS MY BLOG POST) and starts by saying that work “is progressing on all three research strands at the speed we anticipated “ and goes onto to say that they are on target to report back by the end of April.
You know how I hate to say: “I told you so”, which is why I won’t bother but the blog post mentions that the information they have gathered so far suggests “a change of tack is required with regard to one of the research strands.” It goes on to reiterate that the original intention was to “pilot research to compare students’ problem solving skills based on their explanations of how they would go about answering a question with the marks they would have been awarded having answered the questions”.
So let’s cut to the chase and show you the “money shot” … “Early results from the pilot suggest the approach is unlikely to yield meaningful data. As such, it makes sense to swiftly adopt an alternative methodology.”
Instead they are going to ask a small number of students to “answer problem solving questions and explore different ways of producing an answer. These responses will then be compared to understand the extent to which students have had the opportunity to demonstrate their problem solving skills. This will allow us to order the questions by the level of challenge each presents to the students, and the extent to which the questions have measured what they were intended to measure”.
For the uncynical (is that a word??) amongst you this might mean “the results we are getting aren’t showing us what we want so we’ll use some methodology that does produce the results we want!”.
The closing paragraph states that “it is imperative that we reach the right conclusions, and central to that is having robust evidence.” Now Glenys, you are talking my language! Whether this is happening is a different discussion – what I would ask you to do as part of your “research” .. go and have a look at how some of your “maths-idols” (i.e. Singapore etc) introduce changes of this scale into their examination system.
I feel a bit like I’ve been looking for the Scarlett Pimpernel when it comes to looking for updates, but I’m extremely lucky in that LOTS of people send me links and information (all of whom can rest assured I won’t reveal my sources), maybe because what is at stake is more than a couple of bruised egos by admitting its all gone “Pete Tong” … we are talking about over 500,000 year 11 students every single year!!
Just a thought … maybe there’s a makeover in the offing and Ofqual are going all “gangsta”. It would account for them going all “street” and the poorly covered ar$e could be explained by the teenage look of wearing your trousers down by your knees (You are supposed to still wear pants ya know!!). All we need now is that walk that goes with the look too and don’t forget you need a handshake too to complete the look …
