Headteacher leaders have called on the government to “thoroughly review” this year’s key stage 2 Sats amid concerns about the quality and accuracy of the marking.
The NAHT school leaders’ union said it would highlight concerns about the way marking of papers was managed and the operation of the Sats helpline this year.
The national assessments returned last month for the first time in three years, having been cancelled because of the Covid pandemic, with Capita contracted to oversee the marking process.
Markers, who have asked to remain anonymous, have raised concerns that the way Sats have been managed this year will affect the accuracy of marking.
Capita has said it will look to learn lessons from this year after some markers reported a lack of availability of papers to mark.
Now the NAHT has told Tes that it will be asking the Department for Education and the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) to “thoroughly review” the handling of this year’s tests to ensure that “confidence in the system” is not lost.
The union’s director of policy James Bowen said there had “clearly been some issues with the infrastructure that sits around Sats this year”.
He said the “latest reports” of fears around the accuracy and quality of the marking, alongside other problems, were “certainly concerning”.
“We would like to see the Department for Education and the STA carry out a thorough review of how Sats have operated this year so that school leaders can have confidence in the system,” he added.
Sats 2022: fears about the accuracy of marking
The NAHT’s intervention comes after markers voiced concerns about the accuracy and quality of the marking this year and the difficulties they have faced.
One Year 6 teacher, who worked as a KS2 Sats marker this year and for three years before the pandemic, said they were concerned about the standard of marking this year, adding that the entire process had been an “absolute nightmare”.
A lack of Sats papers being made available to mark meant they found they were switching between the questions they were checking.
The marker, who asked not to be named, said: “I was switching between questions and rushing through in order to meet the allocation deadlines.
“I found I made way more mistakes than usual due to the inconsistency and tiredness.”
A senior marker told Tes they were concerned that a “lack of communication” from both Capita and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), which is leading on delivering KS2 marking, had also “impacted on the quality of the marking”.
Overall, the senior marker described the process as “stressful and upsetting” for those involved.
SQA is working alongside Capita to deliver the marking for key stage 2 Sats this year.
Markers also told Tes that their allocations were changed without warning throughout the process. One marker said their marking load was increased from 3,400 to 3,990 segments at the end of last month.
Each Sats paper is divided into five or six segments.
There are also concerns around the supply of markers next year, as both specialist and senior markers have told Tes they will “never work for Capita again”.
One marker told Tes that they wouldn’t be returning next year and would have resigned if they had known how much they would be paid.
Last week markers received their pay slips from Capita, and many were left concerned with the amounts they were receiving, claiming it was the first time they had seen the full breakdown for how much they would earn per segment and it was less than they were expecting.
Sats results will be used in Ofsted inspections this year
There were already concerns over the high stakes of the return of Sats this year after the DfE revealed that results will feed into Ofsted inspections.
Mr Bowen had previously said that leaders were worried about the inequality that would arise from the data being published at school level, due to every school having been “impacted very differently by the pandemic”.
A Capita spokesperson said: ”Due to the impact of Covid-19, this was the first year that we have been able to complete the key stage 2 marking process. The new process is the first time segment marking has been used for key stage 2.
“Throughout the marking process, all agreed quality assurance procedures were adhered to. The monitoring of these quality assurance processes is undertaken by Capita’s key marking partner, the Scottish Qualifications Agency (SQA).
“Scanning and marking occur concurrently and occasionally marking was faster than projected.
“This led to short periods where the demand among markers for some papers outstripped the supply of scanned papers. For the vast majority of the marking window, there was a constant flow of available papers.
“However, we are committed to continuously improving the service we deliver and we will work with the relevant stakeholders to learn the necessary lessons from this issue for next year’s marking cycle.”
On pay, Capita said that markers were paid for “each allocated segment they mark, the training they complete and, if they have a role such as supervising a team, an additional responsibility fee”.
“In each marker’s letter of appointment, they received an indicative estimate of what they could earn for this test cycle,” the spokesperson added.
“The value of each segment varies between different subjects and papers, and each allocation corresponds to a payment higher than the National Minimum Wage.”
The DfE said that the Capita “approach to quality” had four elements including qualification for marking, daily “calibration” (which means they have to accurately mark a small number of pupil responses to that segment before they are allowed to start live marking) and “seed” items.
As well as this, supervisors undertake “check” marking where they review a proportion of a marker’s live marking to confirm they are marking accurately.
Markers also only get two attempts to pass qualification and receive additional support if they fail the first attempt.
If markers score seed papers - which are papers given to test markers’ work - incorrectly, they are prevented from continuing to mark until their supervisor has discussed the marking error with them and re-enforced the applicable training.
The DfE also said that if a marker is stopped an agreed number of times on any of calibration, seeds or check marking, then they would be stopped from marking that segment permanently and the affected marking they have done is reallocated to other markers.
