Cross out,rub out,oops it's still correct

A must read piece in this week's edition of the Spectator by Liz Brocklehurst.

Liz,a former marker of the SAT's paper recounts some tales from the past which will only add weight to the pressure on Ed Balls

Liz was

a Key Stage 2 Science marker, sworn to Masonic-like secrecy about this mysterious testing process. In my innocence I had expected it to be a straightforward procedure, but I hadn’t allowed for the serial incompetence, the human error, the vagaries of postal deliveries, and most important: the political pressure.

And she describes some of the practices,including

if the child wrote the correct answer, but then, on second thoughts, decided it was wrong and crossed it out, the crossing-out still gained the mark.

and it gets better

Correct spelling was completely irrelevant — to the point of absurdity. I remember one question required the one-word answer ‘air’. But markers were instructed that even words such as ‘her’ must be accepted as worthy of the mark. ‘Well,’ argued one senior examiner, ‘the child might speak with a Liverpudlian accent.’

The worrying thing is that these practices have been going on for 10 years,this isn't something that has just occurred under EAT.

A defiant Balls

Steve Richards has a interview with the man of the moment Ed Balls in this morning's Indy.

Under pressure over the Sat tests but standing firm on his reaction to it in the face of a Tory and media onslaught,he claims to have been kept in the dark over the problems at

Only at the beginning of July did we hear that the marking was not on track and there were substantial computer problems."

and adds

"I had a meeting with Ken Boston, the chief executive of the QCA, on 2 June. I asked him questions about marking, quality assurance and delivery and he reassured me that there had been some issues but that he had sorted them out".

He also sees education as one of the dividing lines between the two parties at the next election.

Perhaps though the revelation when asked the ultimate question about his leader

"None of us went into the Labour conference last year thinking an early election was the right thing, but once the speculation began and once the planning had begun it was hard to reverse it."

. but

the next six months will be difficult for Brown,I don't think anyone believes a change of leader would do any good at all... Gordon has the experience, policy and vision."