Ofqual is currently consulting on proposals for how grade standards should be set for the new GCSEs to be introduced from 2015, and how they should be held steady over the subsequent years.
We are not proposing, as Marion Gibbs suggested in her recent piece (A simple grading solution, SecEd 381, May 8, 2014), to use a norm referencing approach to awarding grades. Our consultation, which can be found on our website, looks at the benefits and disadvantages of that approach, and indeed that of criterion-referencing as well.
We conclude that neither are satisfactory. We propose instead that we should carry on with the current approach – which can be seen as using elements of both those ideas – and improve this through the introduction of a National Reference Test.
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