Sat tests

[vit_r]

Questions are being raised about the quality of the marking of some of this year's school tests in England.

Problems are emerging as schools get back pupils' scripts after delays at the test contractor, ETS.

Some schools have been getting scripts back unmarked and in some cases pupils who took the tests are officially recorded as having been absent.

The National Union of Teachers called for the Sutherland Inquiry to consider the whether the results were valid or whether they should be annulled.

Acting general secretary Christine Blower said: "I urge the Secretary of State to add a further criterion to his enquiry; that of deciding whether a subject's tests at each Key Stage are reliable or whether their reliability has been contaminated."
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The mystery of pupils being marked absent when they were not may be down to the online system ETS uses to track pupils' marks.

More questions about Sats results

But ETS repeatedly assured the regulator that it would deliver the results by the 8 July deadline, despite the widespread anecdotal evidence that all was not well.

It was not until 26 June that it had formally notified him that it would not do so, he said.

He suggested the answer was on-screen marking, now used for more than half of GCSE examinations and many of the A-levels - but not these "key stage" tests.

"We need to move as quickly as possible to on-screen marking for key stage tests: fast, reliable, secure."

This was the one aspect of what he famously described on his appointment as the "cottage industry" of England's exam system that had not changed in recent years.

But it would not be possible to implement this for 2009.

Sats company faces bill for delay