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Pretty much since this year’s exam results were released, we’ve been reporting on an ongoing controversy over the way in which one of the papers was marked.
Teachers (including exam markers) accused the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) of “moving the goalposts” for Higher History by changing the marking standard after the exam had taken place.
The SQA insisted that this was false but then quietly opened an investigation into the matter. It was, however, carried out by a senior member of SQA staff and ended up being very, very late.
The report, which we were first told would be out by the end of September, was finally released on 6 November. In it, the SQA declared that there had been no problems with Higher History marking, that systems had worked as intended, and that the huge declines in pass rates and performance levels were just down to the pupils not being very good this year.
The Chief Executive said that the report was ‘robust and rigorous’ and the SQA also pointed out that it had asked another exam board – the Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC) – to ‘provide independent assurance that any conclusions reached were evidence-based and valid’.
Exclusive | Swinney has 'questions to answer' over SQA review of Higher History exam marking
The SQA tried very, very hard to make this the point at which we all ‘draw a line’ under the issue, but it didn’t work – which is entirely unsurprising.
Instead,........