267
lift grade boundaries in a significant number of units so substantially in the
light of statistical evidence.
(Tomlinson 2002b: para 34)
Subsequent conversations with several of my acquaintances from the examinations
world reveal a widespread view that the Boards would have emerged from the crisis
in a better light if the Chief Executive of OCR had followed the Minister’s example
by resigning. His remaining in his post reinforced the impression that the Boards
cannot be held responsible for their actions because genuine control resides
elsewhere. Perhaps, had he acknowledged as he did when interviewed in 2004 that
2002 “was the first really common A-Ievel exam at OCR" (OCR2 2003), he might
have gone some way to explaining that the difficulty was specific to OCR rather than
a fault in the whole system. Certainly that was the retrospective view of another
examining board manager:
What was wrong with Curriculum 2000 was that it created a very complex
technical problem and it went wrong in one awarding body. [The Chief
Executive of OCR] alone decided against dealing with the complexity. That was
the cause of the whole thing. One board’s decision affected a small number of
candidates. There was no real crisis.
(AQA3 2005)
This was far from the general view prevalent at the time. In the national press the
Boards’ reputation had been repeatedly impugned, and the need for their existence
questioned in an unprecedented manner. After suggesting that the September 2002
crisis should be regarded as evidence that “the whole system of public examining in
England is not worthy of the confidence of parents, students or teachers”. The Times
raised the issue of comparability:
The more serious [than bureaucratic errors] accusation, however, is that exam
boards acquire a specialism in terms of their clients (some 90 per cent of
independent schools use OCR for example) and this may influence policy. The
suspicion remains that the same individual could acquire varying grades for
essentially the same material depending on which board held their scripts.
(The Times 7 September: 21)