School Exams

This article sets out to examine three examination crises in Scotland and England in recent years. Although entirely separate, several common underlying themes link these episodes. They are: policy change in the shape of new examination systems and the failure of existing institutions to cope with the increased workload; the politicisation of the results‐reporting period; the time‐limited nature of examination crises; and the tension between ministerial responsibility and the autonomy of non‐departmental bodies, or quangos, in the event of crisis. In all three case studies the focus is on the pressure on ministers and quango executives to respond to public concern. The English crisis of 2002, it is argued, was of a different magnitude because the policy change, Curriculum 2000, called into question the supremacy of the A level as the ‘Gold Standard’ of the education system and led to still unresolved accusations of a political fix to avoid grade inflation

Autonomy · Curriculum · Economics · Grade inflation · Higher education · Management · Moral panic · Period (music · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Workload · Educational Assessment and Improvement · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · Law · Public Administration · Social Work Education and Practice

• Could do better? Media depictions of UK educational assessment results

  Paul Warmington, Roger Murphy•Journal of Education Policy•2004

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