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CHAPTER 4 THE EXAMINING BOARDS IN THE 1990S: UNDER
PRESSURE AND LOSING CONTROL...............................................................138
Continuing Attempts to Revalue the ‘Gold Standard’...................................................................143
Education in the 1990s: The policy generators of change...............................................................150
External Issues Affecting the Examining Boards............................................................................160
1 The Examinations Market: Old loyalties to examining boards disappear.................................160
2 The Unification Principle..............................................................................................................170
3 Increasing Regulation: Accountability justifies control..............................................................201
4 The Standards Debate: Are grades norm or criterion referenced?............................................208
Internal Stresses Preoccupy the Boards...........................................................................................223
1 StaffProbIems Resulting from Change.........................................................................................230
2 Upgrading Information Systems and Tracking the Data Explosion..........................................237
3 Not Calling the Tune, but Paying the Piper: The internal financial pressures resulting from
externally-generated change.............................................................................................................242
Looking beneath the 1990s agenda: What was really happening..................................................246
CHAPTER 5 THE A-LEVEL GRADES CRISIS OF SEPTEMBER 2002: THE
BOARDS BECOME HOSTAGES TO FORTUNE..............................................248
1 Redesigning a Qualification: Amateurs instructing professionals..............................................251
2 The September 2002 fiasco: Awarding bodies in the dock..........................................................264
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSIONS: THE BOARDS IN THE 21ST CENTURY ....272
What does the evidence suggest? My answers to my research questions......................................272
What future awaits the boards: public and bureaucratic or independent and democratic?......284
APPENDIX: KEY TO INTERVIEWEES.............................................................293
REFERENCES........................................................................................................294