ETS Fiasco

Well, I have to admit that the mess that ETS have got themselves into is far greater than I had predicted or expected. You only have to read the non-sensational parts of the national press to be aware of their (mainly self-inflicted) problems.
Quite apart from the all the troubles they had recruiting markers, arranging meetings and setting up the computer to receive marks, there are three big mistakes which (from my personal experience as a KS3 Maths marker) could have been avoided, and have contributed significantly to their present embarrassment.

First, they should have had all schools send the scripts direct to the markers instead of to some distribution centre. Markers immediately lost at least a week's, and in many cases a lot longer, marking time meaning that many markers were unable to complete their allocation before the deadline. I received many emails from ETS asking if I could mark extra papers. Normally I would have been able to but, having "lost" a week at the start of marking, I was then starting my Cambridge Overseas A-Level papers.

Second is the question of accuracy of the marking. As an experienced marker, I hope my errors are very few and far between. However not a single script that I marked was seen or checked by any other person and, thus, I received no feedback or comment on my performance. The only check on me was the periodic "benchmarking" procedure whereby I marked four or five sets of papers online. Presumably the number of errors I made was fewer than some minimum requirement and I was told to continue marking. But how many errors did I make, and what were they, and did I keep making the same errors throughout my marking? No one will know until the scripts are returned to the schools and eagle-eyed teachers and pupils scrutinise my work and appeal if a higher level has been missed because of an error by me. If I had known the marks required for each level I could have looked again at borderline cases, found any errors and, where appropriate, adjusted the award.

Third is the entering of the marks online, an excruciatingly boring and mind-numbing process, which took far longer than totalling the marks of three papers and adding the three together. Clearly the computer programme has been unable to cope with the volume of data and award the levels, a task previously undertaken by the individual markers and delivered to the schools on time.

So, what changes will there be next year? My guess is very few. Ed Balls will conduct his inquiry and he and ETS will announce that they have "listened and learned" and they will continue to "get on with the job."
But how many disillusioned markers will pack it in? Quite a few I expect, but the rest of us will carry on because we quite enjoy the marking and the money's useful.