The fairness of internal assessment in the GCSE: the value of students’ accounts

ABSTRACT

The use of internal assessment within GCSE qualifications has always aroused controversy, primarily because of concerns about the authorship of students’ work. This has led to tighter controls and a reduction in its use over the last decade. The paper argues that the focus on the authentication of student work has neglected other aspects of fairness, such as ensuring that assessments elicit students’ best performance. Students’ accounts can contribute to our understanding of test fairness by showing what affects their performance and how these assessments are enacted within their contexts. The paper draws on a study which surveyed 1600 GCSE students and held focus groups with 128 others in Northern Ireland and Wales, in addition to data from the WISERDEducation multi-cohort study. A number of factors, including the assessment environment, reportedly affected students’ performance. According to student comments, the ways in which the assessment guidelines were enacted varied considerably between contexts, with significant fairness implications.

Abbreviations: CCEA: Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment; GCSE: General Certificate of Secondary Education; FG: Focus Group; FSM: Free School Meals; NI: Northern Ireland; UK: United Kingdom; UNCRC: United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; US: United States; WJEC: Welsh Joint Education Committee

KEYWORDS:

• Internal assessment
• controlled assessment
• fair testing
• GCSEs
• qualifications

Acknowledgments

Rhian Barrance received a doctoral scholarship to complete part of the research for this article from the Department of Education Northern Ireland. The research was undertaken at Queen’s University Belfast and was supervised by Jannette Elwood and Laura Lundy.

The paper is also based on research supported by the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD). WISERD is a collaborative venture between the Universities of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, South Wales and Swansea. The research undertaken through WISERD Education was funded by HEFCW (Higher Education Funding Council for Wales). Constantino Dumangane Jr. and Daniel Evans assisted in the collection of data.

The author would like to thank the reviewers for their insightful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Education Northern Ireland and HEFCW.

Notes on contributors

Rhian Barrance

Rhian Barrance is a Research Associate  at the Wales Institute forSocial and Economic Research Data and Methods (WISERD) at Cardiff University. Prior to joining WISERD, she completed her doctorate in Education at Queen’s University Belfast.