Education - Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment: data analysis – phase 1

Introduction

Scotland is currently undertaking a Review on the Future of Qualifications and Assessment. The Review is led by the Independent Review Group chaired by Professor Louise Hayward and is participative by design. Three distinct sets of participants are involved in the Review: those for whom qualifications matter most; (individual learners and, as appropriate, parents or carers); educational professionals (including teachers and lecturers, school and college leaders and local and national policy makers); and users of qualifications (such as colleges, employers and universities). All of these groups are crucial if a qualifications system is to be credible and practical. Members from each of these groups are included in the Independent Review Group (IRG). To extend and to deepen the involvement of each community in the Review process, every member of IRG established a wider community group, referred to as a Collaborative Community Group (CCG). Each CCG includes a wider range of voices from that community, including participants who traditionally have not been part of national policy design and development.

The Review is structured in three phases and is consulting on each phase. The focus for consultation in phase one is on the vision and principles for the future of Qualifications and Assessment. The vision and principles, once agreed, will be used to inform the design of options for consultation in the second phase of the Review. The feedback from the consultation on options will then be used to design a preferred option for the Future of Qualifications and Assessment in Scotland. In the third phase, the consultation will invite views on the final vision and principles and the preferred option. The consultation will focus on implications for policy and practice.

The Independent Review Group and the Collaborative Community Groups are involved in each phase of the consultation. In addition, as part of the Review's commitment to a participative approach, one that recognised the need for a qualification and assessment system to be both principled and practical, views from colleges and schools across Scotland were sought. A consultation pack was sent to colleges and to Local Authorities with a request for the pack to be sent to every school. Not every school received the pack in time to be able to respond and a more extended distribution strategy will be used for the second stage of the Review.

This report presents findings from the first phase of the Review consultation on the draft vision and principles. The draft was developed with colleagues from the Scottish Youth Parliament and the Children's Parliament. The consultation was undertaken using a semi-structured questionnaire and responses are included from the CCGs and from Schools and Colleges.

The evidence in this report is based on an analysis of quantitative and qualitative data gathered through questionnaires. The survey questions were designed to ensure that participants were uninhibited in their response to the vision Statement and principles. Accordingly, the data collected were subjected to statistical and content analysis, comparing data from different groups. Due to rounding not all percentages in the report sum to 100%.