Ofqual publishes two reports from its Reliability Programme

10 March 2010

Ofqual today (Wednesday, March 10) publishes two reports from its programme of research into the reliability of assessment results.

The two reports are:

International Survey of Results Reporting: This looks at different approaches to reporting results used around the world and what steps are taken to explain the reliability of assessment results. The report is by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).

The main findings are:

The way results are reported depends on their intended use and who they are reported to
Few examples were found where results included any explanations about assessment reliability.

Public Perceptions of Reliability: This report covers the discussions of focus groups held to explore public awareness of assessment reliability, whether or not people wanted to know more about the subject and if so, how they thought it should be communicated. The report is by AQA.

The discussions held by the focus groups revealed that, apart from the secondary school teachers that took part, participants had limited knowledge of assessment reliability issues. Many had significant trust in the system to award the 'right' outcomes and in the examiners themselves.

While they did say that they like to improve their understanding of how the assessment process works, there was little support for any moves to quantify the reliability of results, for example by publishing a reliability statistic alongside a candidate's grade.

The reports can be found on the www.ofqual.gov.uk website.

The findings of the reports will be considered alongside other research carried out as part of the Reliability Programme and will inform Ofqual's future work in this important area.

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