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Showing posts from May 20, 2008

Schools Tests "Shambles"

"Concerns about the administration of this year's school tests in England have prompted a call for payment to be withheld from the test contractor, ETS. " BBC News The Lib Dem education spokesman David Laws has called the situation a "shambles". Schools Secretary Ed Balls has said that action has been taken "to get things back on track". But markers and schools report ongoing problems with the test process and there are complaints that pupils' scripts have not been collected from some schools. Some of those who have been trained and are waiting to start marking say the scripts have not been delivered to their homes. ETS Europe, the company that has taken over this year from Edexcel has said it is addressing the issues and has promised that the results will be back with schools as scheduled by 8 July. (In 2004 in America, ETS had given 4,000 graduate teachers the wrong marks for their teaching exams and had to pay millions in compensation. Mr Bal