ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter explores experience of moderation and audit in the context of National Curriculum Assessment (NCA) in England and Wales during the period from the publication of the report of the Task Group on Assessment and Testing (DES/WO, 1988a) to the publication of the final report of the governmentcommissioned review of National Curriculum and assessment carried out by Sir Ron Dearing in 1993 (Dearing, 1994). For reasons partly to do with the phased introduction of the National Curriculum, partly to do with the different characteristics of education at the various Key Stages, and partly, one suspects, for political reasons, the quality assurance structures and procedures that had been tried out by the time of the Dearing Review exhibited considerable differences across Key Stages. At Key Stage 1 (KS1) a system of ‘moderation’ involving teams of visiting moderators appointed by local education authorities (LEAs), backed up by local assessment training, was established in 1991. At KS3, however, a very different system of ‘quality audit’ was introduced in 1992, though it was effectively ‘put on hold’ by the teachers’ boycott in 1993. ‘Quality audit’ required schools to send samples of test scripts and other evidence of assessments to GCSE examining groups, as designated audit agencies, for ‘audit’ and ‘endorsement’. By the beginning of 1994 the issue of moderation or audit at KS2 had still to be resolved and the Dearing Report (1994) recommended no decision until the new School Curriculum and Assessment Authority (SCAA) had carried out a further review of the options.
