Education Services 105 Dalrymple Street PA15 1HT

Tel: 01475 712850/52 Fax: 01475 712875 Education Services Director: Bernard McLeary

Enquires to : Albert Henderson IAN COWAN Assistant Clerk, Education, Culture & Sport Direct Line No : 01475 712850 Room 2.7, Committee Chambers Scottish Parliament Our ref: AH/AG George IV Bridge EH99 1SP Date: 22 September 2000

Dear Mr. Cowan,

SCHOOLS EXAM RESULTS INQUIRY

Please find attached Education Services responses to the Schools Exam Results Inquiry. As you will see from the appendices, we have gathered a lot of information already and we are at the moment asking schools to submit a further narrative on their experience, which we would be happy to forward to the Inquiry.

1. Management of Information

Difficulties arose in this area with schools having to submit the same evidence to SQA on more than one occasion. This was exacerbated by staff having to come in during the school holiday period to re-submit material that had already been sent.

Much of the day to day liaison with SQA regarding the input of school/pupil data took place for Inverclyde schools (and other former Strathclyde Authorities) via the SEEMIS group. At the start of last session (i.e. Aug/Sept) it was clear that the normal SQA data management process was not in place e.g. the catalogue of subjects was not available from SQA. During the months to December there were many problems arising in schools which were deemed to be due to SQA problems.

SEEMIS staff met with SQA to go over the problems in December and as an authority we met with SEEMIS staff at the start of February to identify where there were any remaining issues. On the basis of this meeting, we felt that the data input had been ‘tightened up’ and would run smoothly. As far as schools and the authority was concerned, there were no further major problems until we were asked to ensure that schools could make available data on paper which had been sent electronically.(May/June)

I would suggest that it would be helpful if the committee sought a detailed statement from theSEEMIS group of the data input problems and how they and SQA dealt with them. From my own knowledge, I believe that the position might have been even worse if the electronic system used by schools and managed by the SEEMIS group had not been in place.

2. Communication with SQA (see appendix)

The communication links set up by SQA to deal with the school issues were not applied consistently. Five of our eight secondary schools had to make the initial contact themselves.

Most schools, however, report that the SQA staff member dealing with them has been helpful and has expedited matters where possible.

3. Incomplete Certificates (see appendix)

One school was not informed that certificates were incomplete. SQA had indicated to schools that 93 certificates were incomplete across Inverclyde. The schools identified a further 45 incomplete certificates that had not been identified by SQA at that stage.

Most of these have now been taken account of. I am writing separately to SQA to identify the few schools and subjects with unresolved issues, (not Appeals).

4. Late issue of Higher Certificates (see appendix)

A total of 21 pupils did not receive their results on the date of issue.

5. Discrepancies between School Predictions and Certificate Results

There were a total, across all subjects, of 586 pupils whose certificates showed a 2/3 band difference from school predictions. In addition, there were 177 pupils whose certificates show a difference of 4 or more bands from school predictions. Given these figures, schools have expressed concern over marking checks and standards.

5. Appeals

At Higher grade there are about 700 out of 3,350 presentations for S5/S6 i.e. about 21%. Schools have indicated that this is double, and in some cases treble, the figure for previous years. The subject with the largest number of appeals are English, Maths, Modern Studies, History, Chemistry, Geography, Physics, Art and Design, and Information Systems.

At Standard Grade the number of appeals is about 675 out of 9,300 presentations, about 7.2%. In 1999 the number was about 430 out of 8,800 presentations i.e. 5%. This represents an increase of about 40%. 6. Pupils Future Proposals

We asked schools to identify those individuals who needed to be looked at quickly for university places and these have been processed through urgent appeals. We had 44 urgent appeals in total.

7. Higher Still

The difficulties with SQA procedures this year should be treated as a separate issue from the Higher Still Development Programme. Subject panels may decide, for teaching and learning reasons, that internal assessment arrangements and/or support for these arrangements should be looked at. This should be treated as an issue in its own right and not linked to this years problems experienced by SQA.

8. Recommendations

The first step is to reassure schools and candidates on the accuracy of the marks for this years exams and to speedily examine the appeals submitted. This has been addressed through ADES involvement in the process and the fact that SQA has included marker checks over and above the normal appeal process.

The next step will be to ensure that SQA in-house investigation comes up with solutions to the I.T./data handling problems, including the way in which it gathers and stores information from school.

As indicated above, the SEEMIS group manage the data transmission to SQA for Inverclyde schools. As far as I am aware, the data delivery to SQA is “passive”. That is, SEEMIS make the data available to SQA and SQA access it when they wish. SEEMIS do not check if SQA have picked up the data since no acknowledgement is given by SQA when they pick up the data. This needs to be changed to an “active” system so that schools receive a receipt for each set of data sent to SQA. This should apply to both electronic and paper systems.

The current system whereby a named SQA staff member liases with schools has been welcomed by schools. It may well be that such a system should continue at least for the current session.

To aid schools for this session 2000/2001 we need SQA to provide a timetable for this session and stick to it; and we need an assurance that the subject catalogue will not change during the year.

Finally, we need to have a final pre-appeals data set provided to each school. For Inverclyde schools this should be done via the SEEMIS group. At present schools are working from their own compilation of pupil results based on pupil certificates and phone calls/faxes from SQA. This we feel is unacceptable. Schools require this ‘baseline’ information to ensure that they have appealed for all candidates where appropriate.

I hope the above analysis is helpful and look forward to hearing the result of the inquiry.

Yours sincerely

Albert Henderson Acting Head of Service Inverclyde Council: Education Services

SQA Appeals Sept 2000

Intermediate 1+2 Standard Grade

Approx Approx Number of Estimated Number of Estimated Appeals Appeals Appeals Appeals 1999 2000 1999 2000 Accounting & Finance 2 3 1 Art & Design 0 28 33 Biology 9 11 21 Chemistry 0 1 11 Computing Studies 0 0 12 Craft & Design 0 8 24 English 15 26 56 Economics 0 1 0 French 3 55 30 Geography 10 25 64 Graphic Communication 2 5 7 History 0 50 53 Home Economics 4 23 28 Latin 0 5 5 Mathematics 84 48 86 Modern Studies 26 75 103 Music 2 0 0 Office & Information Stud 0 24 45 Physical Education 0 21 35 Physics 11 9 14 Science 0 2 11 Social & Vocational Skill 0 1 6 Spanish 0 4 25 Technological Studies 0 7 2 Business Management 0 0 3 Admin 2 0 0 Info Systems 11 0 0 Total 181 432 675

Education RCBM/R+I/21 Inverclyde att1.xls 12/12/2000 LEVEL, IE, CSYS, SCE HIGHER, HIGHER STILL (Nearly all HS except SUBJECT English) NUMBER (No CSYS) URGENT GENERAL Acc/Fin 1 13 Administration 0 0 Art/Design 2 37 Biology 0 21 Bus Management 0 14 Chemistry 6 45 Classical Greek 0 0 Classical Studies 0 0 Computing 0 10 Craft & Design 0 13 Drama 0 0 Economics 0 2 English/Com 4 108 Home Ec (FTT) 0 0 Home Ec (HFT) 0 0 Home Ec (LCT) 0 0 French 0 15 Gaelic (Learners) 0 0 Gaidhlig 0 0 Geography 12 41 Geology 0 0 German 0 0 Graphic comm 0 13 History 2 56 Human biol 0 0 Hospitality 0 0 Info systems 1 35 Italian 0 3 Latin 0 3 Mathematics 11 77 Media studies 0 0 Modern studies 2 63 Music 0 4 PSE 0 0 Philosophy 0 0 Physical Educ 2 21 Physics 1 38 Politics 0 0 Pract craft skills 0 0 RMPS 0 0 Spanish 0 2 Tech studies 0 0 Travel/tour 0 0 Other 0 0 Sec St 0 24 RE 0 4

Total 44 662 Inverclyde Council: Education Services Survey of SQA Issues 22 August 2000

PORT ST STEPHEN'S HIGH WELLINGTON GOUROCK HIGH GREENOCK ACADEMY GREENOCK HIGH NOTRE DAME HIGH ST COLUMBA'S HIGH HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMY Inverclyde 1. Communication with SQA In terms of Mr. Ewart’s letter, were you contacted on Friday Number Response 18 August regarding your school’s candidates? By Telephone (Yes/No) no no no yes no no no no 7 No By Fax (Yes/No) yes no yes yes yes no no no 4 No

Did you have to contact SQA? no yes no no yes yes yes yes 5 Yes

2 Incomplete information supplied by SQA Did SQA inform you of incomplete certificates? yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes 7 Yes

No of No of No of No of additional No of No of No of No of No of No of additional No of additional No of additional candidate candidate No of additional No of additional No of additional No of additional No of additional candidates candidates candidates candidates candidates candidates s s candidates candidates candidates candidates candidates candidates candidates candidates candidates candidates identified identified identified by identified by identified identified identified identified identified by identified by identified identified identified by identified by identified by identified by identified by identified Subject by SQA by school SQA school by SQA by school by SQA by school SQA school by SQA by school SQA school SQA school SQA by school Art & Design 3 0 3 English 0 8 0 8 History 0 1 0 1 Chemistry 14 0 14 0 Drama 1 0 1 French 0 3 3 0 1 0 4 3 Mathematics 1 0 0 2 1 2 Physics 0 1 0 1 Accounting and Finance 1 0 1 0 Craft and Design 7 0 7 0 Graphic Communication 0 3 0 3 Modern Studies 0 3 0 3 English and Communication 0 1 0 1 Information Systems 6 0 23 1 15 0 44 1 Home Economics - Health and Food Technology 7 7 1 0 8 7 Latin 0 1 0 1 P.E. 3 1 11 0 0 2 7 14 10

Total 0 0 10 13 26 1 7 7 49 11 0 3 0 2 1 8 93 45

How many pupils have not 0 1 2 5 3 8 1 1 21 received certification?