Science exams may be too easy

THE head of a leading exam board has complained to Ed Balls, the schools secretary, about the failure of the government and education regulators to enforce high standards in GCSE science.
Mike Cresswell, director general of AQA, wrote to Balls because of anger that for the second year running, two other exam boards — Edexcel and OCR — had marked GCSE papers more leniently than his own, potentially giving candidates grades they had not earned.
Cresswell’s move is the latest sign that many in the education establishment are starting to accept that some exams may be too easy, particularly in science.
This comes despite years of denials that there there were problems either with standards or with grade inflation, while critics claimed that boards were trying to gain advantage in the exams market by appearing to offer students easier chances of a higher grade.
In his letter sent on November 20, Cresswell wrote: "Other awarding bodies were again unable to meet the right standard and their GCSE science results were too lenient in 2009.”
He added: “The discrepancy is now clear for all to see...robust action must be taken to restore comparability at the right standards.” Cresswell also criticises the government’s decision not to establish Ofqual, the new exams regulator, with legal powers to enforce high standards.
Cresswell, who is to retire soon, has made it known that he “extremely aggrieved” that in 2008 his board was told to lower its standards of marking to bring it into line with other boards. “People are pleaded with, not ordered to raise standards, and that is not good enough,” said one friend of Cresswell’s.
Cresswell’s move follows concerns raised recently by Score, a grouping of Britain’s leading scientific societies, that science GCSEs were failing adequately to test either the scientific or mathematical knowledge of pupils.
Richard Pike, chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry, also attacked an Edexcel maths GCSE for “absurdly easy” questions.
In the paper intended for the brightest pupils in the country, the question offering the most marks for a correct answer showed a picture of a cube with sides of 5cm and simply asked pupils to state its surface area.
Ed Balls, the schools secretary, has attacked critics of GCSE standards for “rubbishing the achievements of young people”.
However, there are signs that educationalists are starting to shift away from this view, perhaps with a Tory election victory in view.
The Conservatives have promised to make exams tougher. Michael Gove, their schools spokesman, said earlier this month: “Those exams themselves have become devalued with headteachers warning about the terrifying absence of real science in the GCSE curriculum.”
One senior figure in the exam world — not Cresswell — said last week: “Next year will be the year of standards. There is the possibility of a Tory government and the public will not put up with falling standards any longer.”
Ofqual, the exams regulator, will this week publish a new set of criteria for exam boards setting science GCSEs which are expected to include tougher quality requirements than at present. Senior officials there believe the quality of science papers has become far too low in the past two years as well as marking being too lenient.
A spokesman for Balls’s Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “Ofqual have all the powers they need to enforce standards and we expect them to use those powers wisely and robustly.
“They will be able to require awarding bodies to take a consistent approach and if necessary directt an awarding body and enforce that direction in the courts.”