Invited Symposium: Teacher Ethics in Assessment (Mar 2015)

This invited symposium, which took place at St Anne’s College, Oxford on 26th March 2015, was hosted by Professor Jo-Anne Baird, Director, OUCEA and Glenys Stacey, Chief Regulator, Ofqual.

The programme is available here. Ofqual has issued a press release about the symposium and Glenys Stacey has published a blog. You can follow some of the issues from the day and contribute to the discussion on twitter at #ethicssymp. The event has been mentioned in the media:
• Daily Mail article, How teachers help pupils to cheat in exams: Tactics used to bend rules revealed by more than 500 whistleblowers, 27 April 2015
• Sunday Times article, Teachers’ tricks for helping pupils cheat, 26 April 2015
Below you will find some relevant background resources as well as presentations from the day. Please contact OUCEA Admin if you have trouble accessing any resources.
Speakers’ presentations
Professor Jo-Anne Baird, Director, OUCEA: Introduction
Dr Ardeshir Geranpayeh, Head of Psychometrics & Data Services,Cambridge English Language Assessment: Teacher Malpractice in Assessment: the International Context
Dr Michelle Meadows, Director of Research and Evaluation, Ofqual: Teacher Ethics in Summative Assessment
Geraldine Davies, Principal, The UCL Academy: The Rational Teacher
Professor Paola Mattei, Associate Professor in Comparative Social Policy, University of Oxford: The Ethics of Accountability in Education Assessment
Reading materials
Please click on the links to the resources below.
• Association of School and College Leaders Leading the way: Blueprint for a self-improving system (Feb 2015)
• Department for Education National standards of excellence for head teachers: Departmental advice for headteachers, governing boards and aspiring headteachers (Jan 2015)
• Department for Education Teachers’ standards: Guidance for school leaders, school staff and governing bodies (Jul 2011)
• General Teaching Council for England Code of Conduct and Practice for Registered Teachers: Setting minimum standards for the regulation of the profession (Jun 2004)
• Mattei, P. (2012) Raising educational standards: national testing of pupils in the United Kingdom, 1988-2009, Policy Studies, 33(3), 231-247. The abstract is available here.
• Mattei, P. (2012) Market accountability in schools: policy reforms in England, Germany, France and Italy, Oxford Review of Education, 38(3), 247-266. The abstract is available here.
• National Council on Measurement in Education Newsletter Vol. 22 No. 1 (Mar 2014) [Pages 5-11 have articles on “Unintentional Cheating”.]
• Newton, P. (2013) List of resources relevant to cheating in GCSE coursework
• Perryman, J., Ball, S., Maguire, M. & Braun, A. (2011) Life in the Pressure Cooker – School League Tables and English and Mathematics Teachers’ Responses to Accountability in a Results-Driven Era, British Journal of Educational Studies, 59(2), 179-195. The abstract is available here.
• Taylor, R. (2013) Early entry to GCSE. Centre for Education Research and Policy, AQA.
• Taylor, R. (2015) A qualitative study of entry and teaching strategies for GCSE mathematics (Summary paper). Centre for Education Research and Practice, AQA.
• West, A., Mattei, P. & Roberts, J. (2011) Accountability and Sanctions in English Schools, British Journal of Educational Studies, 59(1), 41-62. The abstract is available here.
Audio/visual materials
Please click on the links to the resources below.
• Ardeshir Geranpayeh presentation on detecting cheating and plagiarism (podcast)
• BERA Annual Conference 2011: Presentation from Baroness Onora O’Neill
Intelligent Accountability in Education (podcast)
• Paul Newton presentation on the problem with performance indicators (Powerpoint)
• Paul Newton presentation on coursework, controlled assessment and allegations of cheating (Powerpoint)
• SSAT National Conference 2013: Presentation from Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser, Vancouver Island University. (The first three links below are podcasts; the fourth is a Powerpoint.)
Intelligent Accountability [1]
Intelligent Accountability [2]
Intelligent Accountability [3] – discussion
Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser presentation
• CNN news coverage on the Atlanta public schools cheating scandal