Over 50 per cent rise in maladministration investigations of KS1 tests

Government investigations into maladministration of key stage 1 tests have increased by over 50 per cent and 65 sets of key stage 2 exams were annulled or amended.

The Standards and Testing Agency’s latest report shows in the 2016 primary SATs exams, there were 524 cases investigated in total.

Maladministration refers to “any act that could jeopardise the integrity, security or confidentiality of the national curriculum assessments and could lead to results that do not reflect the unaided abilities and achievements of pupils.”

This includes actions such as test papers being incorrectly opened, pupils cheating, over-aiding of pupils by test administrators, changes being made to a pupil’s test script by someone other than the pupil or “inflation/deflation of teacher assessment judgements”.

However, there has been a slight drop in the number of cases investigated at key stage 2, from 456 to 430.

Half of the 524 cases investigated in 2016 were based on schools reporting themselves to the STA. In 18 per cent of cases, the council reported the problem, and 14 per cent were reported anonymously.