Abstract

A frequent claim of awarding bodies is that standards are comparable across assessments in different subject areas. And if they are not, the awarding bodies can make them comparable through appropriate statistical techniques, or so the argument goes. It is not surprising that in many countries such brave statements are received with suspicion and mistrust by the stakeholders.

This seminar will look at the attempts of the Cyprus Testing Service to aggregate candidates’ scores from various subjects, with the aim of producing a single index of ‘academic performance’ for each candidate. We will discuss how using different comparability methods can affect the outcomes, and will show that, depending on the method used, different groups of candidates may be ‘penalised’.

We will ask questions regarding the ethical as well as the legal dimension of ‘tampering’ with the scores of candidates. For example, how can we justify the use of a specific comparability method if we know that it may reduce the chances of candidates from lower socioeconomic classes to get access to universities?

Finally Dr Lamprianou will explain how external political and legal issues forced the policy-makers at the Ministry of Education in Cyprus to adapt the current comparability method, and we will brainstorm on the possibility of something similar happening in the context of the English education system.