The English Examining Boards: Their route from independence to government outsourcing agencies

48

In the last stage of my work, I carried out two additional interviews. The first, in June
2005, was with the newly appointed Director General and his Deputy at AQA; the
second, in September 2005, was with the Chief Executive Officer and President of
Pearson Assessments & Testing now leading Edexcel. I felt that I needed current
views on the ever-changing qualifications scene to validate my conclusions. Because

Figure 2-lInterview Prompts

Factors 1991-2002 which destabilised the Boards

A External Factors

- The ‘Standards Debate’: norm referencing v. criterion referencing

- Marketisation and Competition

- The changing Regulator and increasing regulation

- Mergers (from 1997) and the management of change

B Internal Factors

- Personnel issues: increases in appeals, decline of markers

- Keeping up with technology

- Financial issues resulting from all these
these interviews were focused more on the future than the past, I wanted the subjects
to speak freely rather than be bound by particular issues I might raise. Therefore I did
not record them, but took notes of what was really an open-ended conversation in
response to my request for their views on ‘possible ways forward for the examining
boards’. In neither case was any restriction placed on my using anything that was said
during the interview.

Analysing the interviews and incorporating the evidence

I decided against the use of software such as NVivo or NUDIST for analysing the
interviews. I admit to a certain prejudice here, but despite receiving training in their
effective use, I could not overcome my perception that such software, while eminently

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