Comments on: Anton Howes on Michael Gove’s plan to impose a government exam board monopoly http://www.samizdata.net/2012/06/anton-howes-on/ A blog for people with a critically rational individualist perspective Sat, 25 May 2013 02:42:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Anton http://www.samizdata.net/2012/06/anton-howes-on/#comment-235298 Anton Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:17:54 +0000 http://192.168.200.139/?p=15021#comment-235298 Haha you’ll like today’s post on the same subject even more, Brian: http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/education/forget-competitive-exam-boards-we-should-abolish-o-levels-altogether

I was just setting up the debate to make the more radical point… ;)

]]> By: Jim http://www.samizdata.net/2012/06/anton-howes-on/#comment-235297 Jim Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:42:56 +0000 http://192.168.200.139/?p=15021#comment-235297 Is the answer not just to make the exams normative again? Then there is no incentive to dumb down the content in order raise ‘pass’ rates because it makes no difference. In fact its probably easier to grade pupils into deciles (or whatever) if the exam is a bit harder so the marks are spread out more.

If only 20% of students could get an A in any particular exam boards syllabus, then there is little incentive for a school to put its pupils in for it over a harder one, even if it was an ‘easier’ exam. It would just mean to get an A you’d have to get nearly 100%.

Hence the gaming of the system by both exam boards and schools would be thwarted. Schools couldn’t get better grades by going for an easier exam, and boards couldn’t offer higher grades by making their exam easier.

]]> By: Jock http://www.samizdata.net/2012/06/anton-howes-on/#comment-235296 Jock Wed, 27 Jun 2012 11:09:45 +0000 http://192.168.200.139/?p=15021#comment-235296 …a point, Robbo, I make in my linked post above. But not just the universities. Only 20% of kids even sat the GCEs set by university owned examinations syndicates. The CSEs were managed by regional skills boards which was also potentially a good thing lost in that it put regional emphases onto what regional kids were learning and being tested on.

]]> By: Robbo http://www.samizdata.net/2012/06/anton-howes-on/#comment-235295 Robbo Wed, 27 Jun 2012 10:49:46 +0000 http://192.168.200.139/?p=15021#comment-235295 Hmm. In the deep past the exam boards belonged to and had as their customers, the universities. The boards’ role was to set exams which discriminated between more and less able pupils, for the purpose of university entry. Of course many other institutions could use the same exams to make their selection decisions, a massive positive externality, now lost. A reset of the exam system would have to stop regarding pupils or schools as the customer – thereby going down the slippery slope to ‘all shall have prizes’ – and put the university back in charge. They should be able to say, if you want to go to our University you will take our exams and will we judge you based on your results. Actually a single board could work well on this basis, since if it stopped working for the Universities they would be well placed to start a rival board.

]]> By: Jock http://www.samizdata.net/2012/06/anton-howes-on/#comment-235294 Jock Wed, 27 Jun 2012 03:47:40 +0000 http://192.168.200.139/?p=15021#comment-235294 The market ought to figure out what credentials and learning systems work for the people who need to use them. And I don’t think a two tier exam system would win. Polycentric and networked is the future: http://jockcoats.me/goves_conservative_segmentation_education

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