A Policy and Technical Consultation on Regulating Processes for Endorsement of Textbooks and other Support Material Run by Awarding Organisations Information pages About you* Your details: Name: Position: Name of organisation or AQA group (if applicable): Address: Email: Telephone number: Would you like us to treat your response as confidential?* If you answer yes, we will not include your details in any list of people or organisations that responded to the consultation. ( ) Yes (X) No Are the views you express on this consultation an official response from the organisation you represent or your personal views?* ( ) Personal views (X) Official response from an organisation/group (please complete the type of responding organisation tick list) If you ticked ‘personal views’, which of the following are you? ( ) Student ( ) Parent/carer ( ) Teacher (but not responding on behalf of a school or college) Ofqual 2014 1 A Policy and Technical Consultation on Regulating Processes for Endorsement of Textbooks and other Support Material Run by Awarding Organisations ( ) Other (including general public) (please state capacity) If you ticked ‘official response from an organisation/group’, please respond accordingly: Type of responding organisation* (X) Awarding organisation ( ) Local authority ( ) School/college (please complete the next question) ( ) Academy chain ( ) Private training provider ( ) University or other higher education institution ( ) Employer ( ) Publisher of resources ( ) Other representative group/interest group (please skip to type of representative group/interest group) School/college type ( ) Comprehensive/non-selective academy ( ) State selective/selective academy ( ) Independent ( ) Special school ( ) Further education college ( ) Sixth form college ( ) None of the above (please state what) Ofqual 2014 2 A Policy and Technical Consultation on Regulating Processes for Endorsement of Textbooks and other Support Material Run by Awarding Organisations Type of representative group/interest group ( ) Group of awarding organisations ( ) Publisher ( ) Employer/business representative group ( ) Subject association/learned society ( ) Equality organisation/group ( ) School/college or teacher representative group None of the above (please describe the nature of your group) Nation* (X) England (X) Wales ( ) Scotland (X) Northern Ireland ( ) Other EU country (please state which) ( ) Non-EU country (please state which) How did you find out about this consultation? () Our newsletter or another of our communications ( ) Via internet search ( ) From our website ( ) From another organisation (please state below) (X) Other (please state below) Ongoing dialogue between AQA and Ofqual Ofqual 2014 3 A Policy and Technical Consultation on Regulating Processes for Endorsement of Textbooks and other Support Material Run by Awarding Organisations May we contact you for more information? (X) Yes ( ) No *Denotes mandatory fields Ofqual 2014 4 Questions A. To what extent do you agree or disagree that the endorsement of resources by awarding organisations for the teaching and learning of qualifications should be allowed. (X) Strongly agree () Agree ( ) Disagree ( ) Strongly disagree ( ) Don’t know/no opinion Please provide comments or evidence to support your answer AQA conducted market research in 2012 and 20131 to establish teachers’ views on the need for resources endorsed by awarding organisations. It is clear from the research that teachers value endorsed textbooks as part of the wide range of resources they can draw on. They want to be confident that a textbook is relevant to the specification they have chosen and value endorsement because this helps them select the best resource for their students and to match their teaching preferences. The professional judgment of the teacher plays an essential part in determining the relevance and appropriateness of a particular textbook for a given group of students. Resources that are endorsed (or ‘approved’) by awarding organisations provide a number of advantages. According to AQA’s research these include: • Initial support with a new specification so that teachers understand its scope and range • Support for new teachers and non-specialists • Support during cover lessons • Student motivation, resulting from an assurance that an endorsed textbook will not omit any knowledge essential to pass the qualification • Provision of a complete “core”, giving confidence to explore beyond this with relevant articles and further information • Easy to manage – i.e. a set of curriculum-matched resources ‘all in one place’ • General teacher and student reference In the 2012 research, 66% of GCSE and 71% of A-level teachers requested one or more resources endorsed by the awarding body for their subject. In 2013, 66% at GCSE continued to want endorsed resources. The number at A-level had declined 1 2012 research – 71 in-depth interviews with heads of department and an email survey which received 682 responses; 2013 research – 41 in-depth interviews with heads of department, 8 focus groups and an email survey which receive 774 responses. 5 slightly to 62% though this may partly be due to the inclusion of different subjects, such as Art & Design, for which teachers traditionally draw on a much more diverse range of stimulus materials. For some subjects though there is particularly strong need for endorsed resources. In the case of Science for example, 73% of GCSE and 70% of A- level teachers requested them in 2013. Based on this research, AQA has therefore concluded that there is a clear requirement for resources endorsed by the relevant exam board in the market. B. To what extent do you agree or disagree that we have correctly identified the risks that endorsement creates. ( ) Strongly agree (X) Agree ( ) Disagree ( ) Strongly disagree ( ) Don’t know/no opinion Please provide comments or evidence to support your answer AQA agrees with the potential risks that endorsement could create identified in Ofqual’s Textbook Action Plan. C. To what extent do you agree or disagree that where an endorsement process is set up, the controls we are proposing are appropriate to manage these risks sufficiently. ( ) Strongly agree (X) Agree ( ) Disagree ( ) Strongly disagree ( ) Don’t know/no opinion Please provide comments or evidence to support your answer AQA believes that the risks posed to standards and to a healthy qualifications market are adequately managed by the new guidance in relation to Conditions A4 and F2. The risk posed to public confidence would be suitably addressed by the proposed controls, providing the public fully understands the risks to good teaching and learning 6 that would be posed by a lack of endorsement by awarding organisations. We are concerned however that this may not be adequately understood (see our response to Question H, below, for more details). The risk regarding the effectiveness of learning focuses on whether these materials are too geared to helping students prepare for exams rather than supporting learning. The proposed controls would address this risk for most resources written by senior examiners (endorsed and non-endorsed). There is however still a risk that other resources by former senior examiners, non- senior examiners and experienced authors may still be very exam-focused. No controls are currently proposed to address these resources (although we acknowledge that it would be difficult to design and implement such controls). Assessment organisations do not – and could not – have the resources needed to fully investigate all non-endorsed resources written by senior examiners. AQA contractually requires examiners themselves to disclose all authoring details. In theory it would be possible for a senior examiner to breach his or her contract and publish an exam- focused revision guide without our knowledge; however, based on our experience of working with senior examiners, we believe that the risk of such incidents occurring is extremely low. AQA would take action in the event of any such contractual breach. D To what extent do you agree or disagree that the draft new guidance in relation to Condition A4, about conflicts of interest when a senior examiner also prepares resources for a qualification, is appropriate? ( ) Strongly agree ( ) Agree (X) Disagree ( ) Strongly disagree ( ) Don’t know/no opinion Please provide comments or evidence to support your answer AQA supports the proposed approach that senior examiners are contractually required not to engage in any personal, business or professional activity which conflicts or could conflict with their role as a senior examiner. We also agree that they should be required to inform the awarding organisation when they will be involved in the preparation of resources to support the preparation of learners. This is in line with AQA’s current practice. We believe that senior examiners should be allowed to author resources, whether commissioned by the awarding body or a third party, with appropriate safeguards in place. However we believe that it is not feasible to require awarding bodies to monitor all (non-endorsed/approved) resources produced by all senior examiners, as implied in the draft guidance. The resource implications would be very substantial, disproportionate to the potential risk, and detract from the resources currently deployed 7 to provide other materials for teachers and students. As detailed in our response to question C, we rely on our senior examiners to inform us (as contractually obliged) about resources for which