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Level thresholds for KS2
Background
The national curriculum tests are written against the programmes of study and are designed to award levels that equate demand to the level descriptions. The National Assessment Agency (NAA) has in place a range of procedures, as laid out in the Code of Practice, both statistical and judgemental, to ensure that the standards of performance required for the award of each level are maintained consistently from year to year. These procedures include extensive pre-testing of all test papers, cross key stage pre-tests, obtaining the judgement of panels of teachers, and the advice of the chief and deputy chief markers once the marking is well under way each year. These procedures have enabled QCA to set threshold scores each year which have maintained standards since 1996.
Setting draft thresholds
NAA sets draft level thresholds with the test development agencies for each subject in January/ February preceding the tests in May. The difficulty of the current test is considered by looking at pre-test data, which includes a number of measures designed to identify any variation in the underlying difficulty of the test papers from year to year. If a test paper is deemed to be more difficult than the previous years' test, the level thresholds will be lower. If the test is deemed to be less difficult, the level thresholds will rise. The draft level thresholds are used to inform the next stage of the process.
Setting level thresholds
Once the test has been taken and marking is under way, samples of marked scripts from year 6 children are collected from external markers. The scripts which fall close to the draft level thresholds are scrutinised in detail by senior markers. A final level setting meeting is then convened in June to set the final level thresholds using all the evidence available. The marks obtained by approximately 30,000 children in the 'live' tests are collected so that NAA can check the impact of the decisions made in setting the thresholds.
All these measures are taken to ensure that standards are maintained and that a child who would have achieved a certain level in last year's tests will achieve the same level in the new tests.