‘Rogue marker’ leaked Sats test paper the day before exams
And in this week’s episode of The Thick Of It…
The Department for Education is blaming a “rogue marker” for leaking the spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPAG) tests to The Guardian, after the paper was mistakenly uploaded onto a password-protected website.
The test answers, which was taken on Tuesday by children aged 10 to 11 in England, were published by the test supplier, Pearson, on a secure platform for test markers.
Pearson apologised for the problem and said it was investigating it. According to Chief Executive John Fallon, 102 markers had seen the paper in the four hours it was available: “A small number of markers accessed the paper, although as contracted markers they are bound by confidentiality and have a duty not to share any papers.We do not have any evidence that the content of the paper has been compromised.”
On Tuesday, Schools Minister Nick Gibb addressed parliament about the leaked tests and announced that the SPAG exam would go ahead because it was not shared online or in the press: “The Key Stage 2 test remains valid and is going ahead as planned.
“The journalist in question took the decision not to publish the test papers and I am grateful to him for that.”
Opposition MPs also raised concerns regarding the Key Stage 1 tests that were accidentally published as a practice paper, stating that the Government has “taken its eye off the ball, obsessing over flawed forced academisation plan” and that the exam chaos in the past month has caused a “damaging fall in confidence among parents and teachers about the reliability and validity of testing in schools”.
A DfE spokeman said: “We are aware that Pearson, the external marking supplier responsible for Key Stage 2 tests, published the Key Stage 2 grammar, punctuation and spelling test on its secure marker site for a short period of time.”
“The site can only be accessed by Pearson’s approved markers, all of whom are under secure contract. Any distribution of materials constitutes a clear breach of that contract.”