Chris is 15, and is taking GCSE English, where he has predicted grades of D. This seemed a great improvement on his previous prediction of F, so I was keen to see his work.
It did not meet the National Curriculum criteria for Level 2. Chris, as we will call him, did not begin sentences with a capital letter, used capital letters at the beginning of several words that did not need them, did not join his writing, and used and eight times in a piece of writing eight lines long. It ended with a full stop, but contained four or five separate sentences. The remainder of his work was of similar quality. If the school was correct in its assessment – and Chris assured me the work had been checked with the moderator – then Grade D is of a lower standard than national curriculum level 2, which even I found hard to believe. However, boards can do as they please, and if they can award marks for telling examiners to f off they can get away with this.
Chris’s book has not been marked at all. I mean, at all. Not once since the start of the school year. No comment – praise or criticism. No correction. Above all no guidance on how to develop the basic skills he will need to communicate once beyond the protection of progressive English teaching in all its forms.
The people who have discouraged teachers from marking books did not intend this – the King’s College guidance, which has contributed most to the decline in marking, recommends a comment instead of grades, and there was no comment here at all. However, King’s has started a trend of lack of attention to detail in assessment that has led to many pupils being denied the guidance they need. It is time its work received detailed and critical scrutiny. Not marking books is not a good idea, unless you wish to make work for the adult literacy services.