Differentiation practices

Tiering

Another key feature of the national assessment system that is significant in discussions of

comparability is the approach to differentiation adopted across the system. Again, how this aspect of the system developed was influenced both by an educational and a political agenda, the former being concerned with students’ experiences and die latter with enhancing the efficiency of a very costly accountability framework that reported at the individual student level. The approach adopted in the GCSE influenced practice at the key stages.

GCSE was introduced with the claim that it would enable all students ‘to show what they know, understand and can do ‘ (DES, 1985). In making this claim the Secondary Examinations Council stressed that assessment should be a positive experience for all rather than a dispiriting one for some, and therefore students should not be presented with tasks that were too difficult (SEC, 1985). Allowing students to show what they could do rather than presenting many students with tasks which they were likely to fail became known as ‘positive achievement’ and was facilitated by differentiation - pitching papers and questions at different levels of difficulty. The use of

differentiated papers in GCSE reflects this view of achievement.

... has come to have a very specialized meaning within the context o f assessment: that is, that the [GCSE] examination system, though distinguishing between seven different grades o f performance, should at the same time differentiate between students in a manner that allows every student to demonstrate in positive terms what they know, understand and can do.

(Nuttall, 1990, p. 144)

Tattersall (1983) wrote extensively about possible models of differentiated examinations. These she described as:

- all students take a common examination paper together with one of a number of additional papers o f varying levels of difficulty;

- all students take a basic examination which tests all facets of a course except the content and skills which are deemed appropriate for only the most able students;

- different students take overlapping papers testing overlapping syllabus levels of difficulty each of which is designed for a subset of the ability range.

Tattersall (ibid.) commented that different subjects with their associated pedagogical practices may suit different models of differentiated examinations. The GCSE National Criteria (DES, 1985) required some subjects to be examined using differentiated papers. This was (and continues to be in 2008) the case for science, the subject central to this research. The model most frequently adopted in GCSE subjects including science is where different students take overlapping papers testing overlapping syllabus levels of difficulty. This form of differentiated examination papers is often referred to in GCSE as tiering.

Tiering provides pupils [students] with the opportunity to show what they know,

understand and can do by presenting them with question papers that are targeted at a band o f attainment.

(SCAA, 1996, p. 3)

In tiering students entered for a GCSE in a given subject sit different examination papers according to their teachers’ expectation of their likely performance. In tiered examination papers the grades available to students are limited by a ‘ceiling’ and a ‘floor’. For example in a model of a two tiered system such as:

Higher tier Grades A* to D are available Foundation tier Grades C to G are available

Grade D is the ‘floor’ for the higher tier and grade C is the ‘ceiling’ for the foundation tier. The easier assessment route may lead to the possibility of reaching only a grade C. Grade C is judged to be the pass level at GCSE. Conversely, the harder assessment route may allow students to reach grade A*, but may permit only a grade D as the lowest level; if the student fails to get that, then she / he usually gets nothing rather than a grade E as a consolation prize (exceptional grades are

discussed in Chapter 3)

Tiering was and continues to be used in the national standard tests administered at the end of Key Stage 3(11-14 age group) of the National Curriculum. In science there were two tiers of tests, a lower tier covering levels 3-6 and a higher tier for levels 5-7, and an extension paper to give students entered for the higher tier access to a level 8 award, though this is no longer in use in 2008. Tiering introduces a number of issues about comparability. First is the assumption across the system that strong criterion-referencing allows levels and grades to be used as common

currency. Second, that different papers with overlapping questions can be used to determine grade or level performance on the assumption that the examinations and tests are representative of the domain. These assumptions are, as the literature indicates, questionable because of the limitations of the criterion-referencing approach used and other mediating factors. Since its introduction the model o f differentiated examinations used in GCSE subjects has varied with time. Indeed, between

1998 and 1999, just before my engagement with teachers in the qualitative part of my research, tiering arrangements between different subjects and examination groups were standardized. The majority of GCSE subjects, including science, adopted a two tier modef this pertains in 2008.

These GCSE and Key Stage 3 tiering arrangements had implications for my research. First, I would need to take decisions about which tiers of GCSE science examination papers I would include in my quantitative investigation of examination performance (Chapter 3). Second, in my qualitative investigation the mediation of prior assessments on teachers’ decisions in relation to their students’ tier allocation for GCSE science examinations was considered significant.