ABSTRACT
In September 2000, 16-19-year-olds in schools and colleges across England, Wales and Northern Ireland embarked on Curriculum 2000. This reform of advanced level qualifications, which the previous Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Estelle Morris, described as ‘the most complex changes to the examinations system that have ever been undertaken’ (Morris, 2001), met with considerable problems in its first year of implementation and was already under review within months of being introduced. By 2002, while some of the more immediate implementation issues appeared to be under control, deeper underlying design problems were becoming more apparent. Some of these, principally those related to A level assessment and grading, led to the highly publicized ‘A level crisis’ of 2002. Other design issues related to the Key Skills Qualification and the Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education (AVCE) were already being scrutinized. By the end of 2002, therefore, all the major aspects of Curriculum 2000 were under review. Despite the evident difficulties, however, professional support for the underlying principles of the reforms remained strong (Hargreaves, 2001a; Tomlinson, 2002b).
