Friday 1 May 2020 the Committee Will Meet at 10
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ES/S5/20/9/A EDUCATION AND SKILLS COMMITTEE AGENDA 9th Meeting, 2020 (Session 5) Friday 1 May 2020 The Committee will meet at 10.30 am in a virtual meeting and be broadcast on www.scottishparliament.tv. 1. Decision on taking business in private: The Committee will decide whether to take item 3 in private. 2. Scottish Qualifications Authority - Covid-19: The Committee will take evidence from— Fiona Robertson, Chief Executive, and Robert Quinn, Head of English, Languages & Business, Scottish Qualifications Authority. 3. Review of evidence: The Committee will consider the evidence it heard earlier. Roz Thomson Clerk to the Education and Skills Committee Room T3.40 The Scottish Parliament Edinburgh Tel: 85222 Email: [email protected] ES/S5/20/9/A The papers for this meeting are as follows— Agenda item 2 SPICe briefing paper SQA ES/S5/20/9/1 Focus Group notes ES/S5/20/9/2 Views from Young People ES/S5/20/9/3 Submissions pack ES/S5/20/9/4 Agenda item 2 ES/S5/20/9/1 Education and Skills Committee Scottish Qualifications Authority – COVID 19 1 May 2020 INTRODUCTION This paper is to support the Education and Skills Committee’s virtual meeting with Fiona Robertson, Chief Executive of the SQA on Friday 1 May 2020. The purpose of the session is to explore the SQA’s response to the COVID 19 pandemic. While the SQA is best known for producing and certificating qualifications at the end of school, it also produces qualifications at HND and HNC levels and a range of vocational qualifications. As an accrediting body, the SQA will also accredit qualifications developed by other awarding bodies, including practical, professional awards or qualifications. The remainder of this paper is structured into two parts or themes the Committee may wish to explore with the SQA. These are: • The process and priorities of the SQA in its response to the pandemic. • The certification process in 2020. In addition, the Annexe to the paper provides a timeline and links to the SQA’s communications to date. Policy developments in relation to the COVID 19 pandemic are fast-moving. This paper was drafted on 27 April 2020. Members should note that information may date quickly. THEME 1: THE PROCESS, PRIORITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS OF THE SQA. Purpose of qualifications Before moving on to the SQA’s plans and priorities for certification, it may be helpful to discuss briefly the purpose of qualifications. This is complex and contested territory and it is not possible to do the subject justice in the space and time available. An OECD paper in 20121 stated that a key purpose of a qualification is to provide evidence of knowledge and skills gained. This is particularly useful to provide evidence to another educational establishment or employer. One way of considering the value of a qualification (as distinct to the learning that leads to it) could be the extent to which the qualification clearly and accurately communicates students’ achievements and is trusted to do so by others. A trusted qualification would or could allow the individual to access further employment or learning opportunities and employers and educational establishments would wish that the qualification provides a reliable and valid measure of skills and knowledge. Members will recall from its work on SNSAs in early 2019 that reliability is the extent to which an assessment is consistent (e.g. how likely two candidates 1 Assessment for Qualification and Certification in Upper Secondary Education: A Review of Country Practices and Research Evidence (pp13-15) with the same skills and knowledge will be awarded the same grade), validity is how good the assessment is at testing what one wishes it to test (e.g. having a certain level of competence and knowledge). As the Committee will recall, no assessment is both completely valid and reliable. In relation to summative assessment (e.g. exams), Winch and Gingell (2004) state: “No assessment can be perfect. There have to be compromises between reliability and validity, and validity can never be 100%. There will always be … an inferential gap between assessment performance and pupil knowledge.”2 Another function identified by the OECD in relation to qualifications specifically with a final exam could be to motivate learners to higher achievements; although this is somewhat contested in academic literature3. In terms of teaching and learning within the Scottish system, schools put aside a good portion of the year for pupils to revise for exams, where courses are recapped and learning is consolidated in preparation for an examination. Revision does not necessarily have to be linked to an exam diet, however. Process and priorities The Annexe to this paper lists the publications issued by the SQA on the Coronavirus to date (Monday 27 April). These communications illustrate a fast-moving picture, particularly between the 12 and 26 March. There are however few details on how decisions were arrived at and what other issues and options have been considered. The communication issued on 18 March mentioned that decisions had been taken by the Qualifications Contingency Group, which is chaired by the Scottish Government. Other members of the group are: SQA; School Leaders Scotland; Educational Institute of Scotland; the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland; College Development Network; Colleges Scotland; Scottish Council of Independent Schools; UCAS; and Universities Scotland. The Qualifications Contingency Group’s schedule of meetings, agendas, papers and minutes do not appear to be available on line at this time (27 April). The SQA and the Scottish Government has set out overarching goals for the system they have put in place. The SQA identified three principles for this work in its communication of 20 April: • Fairness to all learners. • Safe and secure certification of our qualifications. • Maintaining the integrity and credibility of our qualifications system, ensuring standards are maintained over time. In its communication on 2 April, the SQA indicated that it wished to “ensure consistency both across the country and in comparison with previous years.” 2 Winch and Gingell (2004) Philosophy and Education Policy, A Critical Introduction (p73). Winch and Gingell consider “knowledge” to include “know-how”, roughly synonymous with “skills” although they dislike that term. 3 Harlen and Crick (2002), for example found mixed evidence for summative assessments motivating learning. Should Members want more information, please contact SPICe directly. 2 There appears to be little information on plans and contingencies for next year’s diet. Members will be aware that many S3 pupils will begin their S4 courses in the summer term – different schools will organise their school years in different ways. National 4s and 5 and Highers are sized at 24 SCQF points, which roughly equates to 240 hours of total learning time, including around 160 hours of instruction. Pupils entering finishing S4 and S5 will often start the following year’s courses in June when they return to routine teaching and learning after exams. On 26 April, the National on Sunday reported that Larry Flannagan, General Secretary of the EIS, had called for the SQA to put in place more continuous assessment in qualifications in case of another wave next year. Members may wish to explore with the SQA: • Whether the SQA and partners had modelled and prepared for the impact of a pandemic on the exam diet. • What impact cancelling the exam diet will have on the quality of teaching and learning. • Other than the health advice, whether the Scottish Government set any limits to possible responses to the pandemic. • Whether the SQA or the Scottish Government undertook any consultation on its response to the pandemic beyond the Qualifications Contingency Group. Whether, the SQA has undertaken an equality impact assessment on its plans for 2020. • What other options were explored. For example, was a differentiated approach to different subjects, levels or years considered? • What issues are there ensuring reliability of certification across the 2020 cohort? • What are the issues in ensuring consistency between the 2020 qualifications and certification in previous years? • What does the SQA mean by “fairness to all learners”. How will the SQA and others know if the SQA achieves this. • Whether the SQA and its partners have begun work on pandemic-proofing qualifications for next year. How many weeks’ disruption to teaching and learning would jeopardise certification in 2021 under the current SQA qualifications. THEME 2: SQA CERTIFICATION IN 2020 The SQA has made special provision for qualifications which require an externally assessed exam, it has also made adjustments for other qualifications. In a school context this will normally mean Nationals 2-5, Higher, Advanced Higher, Skills for Work and other awards. The SQA also produce qualifications at HNC and HND levels which are normally are taken in Colleges or universities. 3 Schools The core element of certification of exam subjects in schools will be teachers’ estimates of grades of individual candidates. The SQA explains: “[Teachers] are best placed to have a strong understanding of how your learners have performed and, based on experience and the evidence available, what a learner would be expected to achieve in each course. An estimated grade is not just the result of one prelim or one project, but is a judgement based on activity across the year.” The process estimation by teachers will have three stages: • Determining the estimated grade as is routine. • Placing candidates into subdivisions of the existing bands to give refined bands. • Ranking all candidates at the school undertaking the qualification within the bands. The first bullet is part of the routine work of teachers who provide the SQA with estimates in Grade bands, e.g. A1 or B3 (upper A and upper B respectively).