The English Examining Boards: Their Route from Independence to Government Outsourcing Agencies

The English Examining Boards: Their route from independence to government outsourcing agencies Janet Sturgis Institute ofEducation Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of London Abstract The contention of this thesis is that the independent English examining boards have been gradually transformed from independent organisations administering a national qualifications system to virtual outsourcing agencies working within a centrally controlled framework. The thesis begins with a review of the literature of English education which reveals that within that literature the examining boards have remained peripheral bodies, accepted as an element in the secondary assessment structure but never seriously analysed. Within a theoretical framework based on the central concept of the encroaching "managerial state", this absence has informed the methodology, which locates the university examining boards as the focus in a historical narrative of the development ofthe unique English post-16 qualifications providers. The central section of the thesis concentrates on the examining boards in the 1990s, and suggests that the pressures of that decade threatened their stability. Data in support of the analysis of this section was gathered in a series of interviews with significant actors from the boards and their regulatory agencies. Then a section dealing with the A-level grades crisis of September 2002 suggests that this event provides clear evidence ofthe Boards' loss ofprofessional independence. The thesis concludes that the English examining boards can no longer be deemed independent and ends with some observations on the significance of this change with two possible directions suggested for their future. 2 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION: UNIQUE BODIES NEGLECTED BY THE ACADEMy....5 CHAPTER 1 LOCATION OF THE THESIS IN RELATION TO THE LITERATURE 11 Identifying an Absence: A survey of the literature reveals the Boards as peripheraL 11 1 The History of English Secondary Education and its Examinations 13 2 Assessment as the focus 20 3 Education Policy and its Critiques 22 4 The Social Impact of Examinations 23 5 Additional sources 25 CHAPTER 2 FINDING A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK, AND CONSTRUCTING A METHODOLOGy 28 1 Finding a conceptual perspective 28 2 Constructing a methodology 37 3 Constructing a coherent chapter structure 49 CHAPTER 3 LOCATING THE ENGLISH EXAMINING BOARDS IN EDUCATION HISTORY 51 Prologue on the English Educational Mindset 51 A The Origins and Development of the Independent English Examining Boards 64 B A golden age for educationists but not for pupils 104 Coda: The English problem with vocational education 127 Looking beneath the narrative: what was really happening? 135 3 CHAPTER 4 THE EXAMINING BOARDS IN THE 1990S: UNDER PRESSURE AND LOSING CONTROL 138 Continuing Attempts to Revalue the 'Gold Standard' 143 Education in the 1990s: The policy generators of change 150 External Issues Affecting the Examining Boards 160 1 The Examinations Market: Old loyalties to examining boards disappear 160 2 The Unification Principle 170 3 Increasing Regulation: Accountability justifies control 201 4 The Standards Debate: Are grades norm or criterion referenced? 208 Internal Stresses Preoccupy the Boards 223 1 Staff Problems Resulting from Change 230 2 Upgrading Information Systems and Tracking the Data Explosion 237 3 Not Calling the Tune, but Paying the Piper: The internal financial pressures resulting from externally-generated change 242 Looking beneath the 1990s agenda: What was really happening 246 CHAPTER 5 THE A-LEVEL GRADES CRISIS OF SEPTEMBER 2002: THE BOARDS BECOME HOSTAGES TO FORTUNE. 248 I Redesigning a Qualification: Amateurs instructing professionals 251 2 The September 2002 fiasco: Awarding bodies in the dock 264 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSIONS: THE BOARDS IN THE 21ST CENTURy .... 272 What does the evidence suggest? My answers to my research questions 272 What future awaits the boards: public and bureaucratic or independent and democratic? ...... 284 APPENDIX: KEY TO INTERVIEWEES 293 REFERENCES 294 4 Table of Figures Figure 2-1Interview Prompts 48 Figure 3-1 Developing an English Examinations System 68 Figure 3-2 Post -1944 Examination Developments 86 Figure 3-3 Post-1946 Changes to SSEC 97 Figure 3-4 Regional GCSE Groups 126 Figure 3-5 Vocational Qualification Developments in England 129 Figure 3-6 Qualifications: Earnings Data 133 Figure 4-1 Rising GCSE Attainment Rates 145 Figure 4-2 Changes to the Regulator 171; Figure 4-3 Market Share by Board 201 Figure 4-4 QCA Audit of OCR: Causes ofproblems in 1999 207 Figure 4-5 SSEC Norms for A-level Grades 213 Figure 4-6 Problem of Limited C Band Figure 4-7 1986 Grade Bands 218 Figure 4-8 Smithers' list ofBoard lapses 228 5 Introduction: Unique Bodies Neglected by the Academy In 1965, R J Montgomery observed that " ... it is surprising that the broad evolution of the large examinations system has not been considered more fully elsewhere" (Montgomery 1965: ix) as he embarked on his own history of the English examinations system. Although a traditionally-minded historian rather than a radical sociologist, Montgomery also believed that "Those controlling the examinations were ...in an exceptionally powerful position in the education system." Yet forty years on, there has been no serious study of the unique English examining boards that for nearly 150 years have been administering that unconsidered system. This thesis begins the process ofnarrating the evolution ofthese bodies and evaluating the effects ofthe shifts in control which they have experienced over their long existence. I contend that this is no mere exercise in abstract research. As I write, a heated debate about the reform of 14-19 education in England is in progress. My research provides fresh insights into the English awarding bodies which I believe can and should inform that process. I suggest that overlooking their professional expertise has proved costly in implementing the recent reform ofA levels. My thesis contends that the English examining boards can no longer be described as independent agents within the English qualifications system. The questions that have shaped my research in support ofthis thesis are: 1 How did the examining boards evolve from their origins accrediting university matriculation into independent providers of the national qualifications system? 6 2 How did the successive changes to the examinations structure affect their role? 3 What evidence is there of a shift in control from the examining boards to the state? In deference to the view of a writer who suggests that "all histories are motivated, whether they are grand narratives or small stories ..." (Simpson 2005: 25), I acknowledge that I have been motivated in this research by my view that these organisations merit scrutiny, central as they are to the qualifications structure which so profoundly affects the life chances ofthe nation's young people. My interest in the English examining boards can be traced back to the 1970s, when I began teaching in the English secondary system. My initial response was incredulity (the typical reaction of those who arrive from abroad) at the eccentricity of a national qualifications system provided by a group of independent and competing boards. This interest developed after I became a teacher representative on one examining board, progressing through a variety of roles for over twenty years. Research for a Master's dissertation (Sturgis 2000) revealed the paucity of attention the Boards I had received from the academic community, and suggested the area as one worthy of further investigation. During my long connection with one examining board, my views about the system were gradually altering from initial suspicion to a reluctant acknowledgement of its merits. At the same time I was aware of the increasing restrictions being imposed on the Board by central regulation. Eventually this gradual and almost surreptitious change presented a natural focus for my research. Had I been aware at the outset of the risks inherent in embarking on a doctoral thesis in such an under-researched field, I might have sought a more well-trodden path. Certainly during the course ofmy work 7 I have felt the absence of other research against which to locate my own. However, I have pursued my interest with a view to providing at least some insight into what I found to be an obscure corner ofthe educational world. While education history may for the most part have overlooked the examining boards, education sociology is clear that there can be no question that examinations play a significant role in what Pierre Bourdieu described as the reproduction of cultural advantage. (Bourdieu and Passeron 1977) Sociologists from Durkheim to Bernstein have consistently identified the significant role of examinations - and, I infer, their providers - in determining the distribution of power in a society. Emil Durkheim noted in 1956 that in the nineteenth century, competitive examinations with rewarding consequences for those who succeeded became widespread in schools, thereby "reinforcing the individualisation that has become characteristic of industrial society ...." (Quoted in Eggleston 1990: 57) In 1971, Basil Bernstein's often-cited statement would also suggest a primary role in the social power structure for examination providers as assessors ofpublic knowledge: How a society selects, classifies, distributes, transmits and evaluates the educational knowledge it considers to be public,

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