English in the News
Below is a selection of articles which are archived online and may be of interest to NATE members. If you know of others please let us know. Keep up to date with our Twitter feed, too.
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- Exam watchdog unveils plans for A-level reform - The Guardian, Wednesday March 29, 2006
The government's exam watchdog today announced the first major steps towards reducing the massive exam burden faced by today's teenagers, while making a strong case for a new A* grade at A-level for the brightest youngsters.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam targets missed while gender gap widens - The Guardian, Wednesday February 27, 2008
The government has missed its attainment targets for tests taken by 14-year-olds in English, maths and science, as definitive results released today show girls were outperforming boys.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam system 'diseased', claims former education adviser - The Guardian, Friday September 17, 2010
Mick Waters says exam boards 'almost corrupt' and make profits through textbooks that hint at exam questionsLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam pits pop's lyrical prowess against Raleigh - The Guardian, Wednesday May 28, 2008
· Amy Winehouse song in Oxbridge final-year paper · Poetry poser reflects our modernity, say academics Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam head quits over Sats fiasco - BBC, Saturday December 13, 2008
The head of the exams watchdog in England has resigned over the Sats test fiasco.
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam head apologises for 'sad state of affairs' - The Guardian, Wednesday July 16, 2008
The government's exams chief today defended the decision to contract ETS Europe to handle key stage 2 and 3 tests, which have been beset by problems and delayed results.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam fees outstrip spending on books - The Guardian, Friday February 24, 2006
Secondary schools are spending £120m more on entering pupils for exams than they are on books for them to read, a study has found. Figures published by the Times Education Supplement today show that secondary schools' spend on exam fees came in at £197m for the 2004/5 academic year.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam chiefs suspended and SATs agency scrapped in wake of school tests fiasco - Daily Mail, Tuesday December 16, 2008
The future of SATs was thrown into doubt yesterday as a damning report blamed a culture of complacency among testing officials for this year's marking fiasco.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam boards ordered to tighten up four GCSEs - The Guardian, Friday February 24, 2012
Regulator makes changes to English literature, maths, history and geography to ensure pupils study whole curriculumLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam boards hit by scandals and criticism - The Guardian, Monday January 2, 2012
A new survey of English teachers [by NATE] reveals intense worries about the consistency of exam marking at A-level, Warwick Mansell writes
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam board to help sort out Sats - BBC, Wednesday August 27, 2008
Exam board Edexcel has been given a contract to provide "back-room" support for the remarking of England's national test (Sats) papers.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam board takes cue from Richard and Judy - The Guardian, Wednesday February 6, 2008
Examiners have culled TS Eliot, EM Forster and Joseph Conrad from the A-level curriculum and are offering schools the chance to pick their own set texts. Teachers should take inspiration from Richard and Judy's book club, they say.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam board surprise at 'obvious plagiarism' in coursework - The Guardian, Thursday November 3, 2005
GCSE students are blatantly plagiarising texts from the internet to use in their English coursework, says a report from the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance published today. .... In some cases, moderators were surprised that even obvious plagiarism had been overlooked by teachers.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam board looks to lawyers in results row - The Guardian, Monday July 14, 2008
The government's exam authority is considering legal action against the company that failed to deliver this year's Sats results on time.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam board launches hunt for online cheats - The Guardian, Wednesday November 23, 2005
A leading examination board is launching a pilot project to scan pupils' GCSE and A-level coursework in an attempt to prevent plagiarism undermining the value of school qualifications.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam board criticised over 'harsh' marking - The Guardian, Thursday October 13, 2005
Exam board Edexcel was ordered to overhaul its marking procedures after a school successfully appealed over its grades in last year's exams, it emerged yesterday. AS-level English results for pupils at Newstead Wood school for girls in Orpington, Kent, alarmed teachers because they were so far below the grades normally achieved.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Exam board buyout could mean on-screen tests - The Guardian, Tuesday April 12, 2005
The multinational publishing and education group Pearson has tightened its control of one of England's largest exam boards with a view to extending on-screen testing and marking.A shake up at Edexcel last month saw the departure of chief executive John Kerr and Stephen Mullarkey, the finance director. Pearson, which went into partnership with the exam board in 2003, has now bought it outright. Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
- Exam board attacked for approving text message answers - The Guardian, Wednesday November 1, 2006
Exam chiefs in Scotland were branded "ridiculous" today after admitting that answers written in text message language will be acceptable in English tests as long as they are correct. The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) said the use of phrases like "2b r nt 2b" or "i luv u" in exam papers would be allowed as long as candidates showed that they understood the subject.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Ex-laureate condemns classics-free GCSE - The Guardian, Friday April 22, 2005
A leading children's author has condemned the "dumbing down" of English literature teaching at school after it emerged that teenagers can get a GCSE in the subject without reading the classics.The works of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte are not compulsory on the most popular GCSE course in England, run by the AQA exam board.
Anne Fine, the former children's laureate and author of Goggle Eyes and Madame Doubtfire, criticised the failure to teach such important books. Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
- Ethics and literary choice - Times Educational Supplement, Friday April 7, 2006
If we were to ban writers from the canon of A-level English literature on ethical grounds, Milton would be out for supporting terrorism (backing an illegal court that beheaded a king), Coleridge and Huxley for drug-taking and Byron for incest.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here