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Dear Colleague
If you are planning to test your Year
3, 4 or 5 pupils and would like help to lighten the work load
of your staff at the end of a busy term we will perform the marking
of these tests for you. We have provided this service since 1996-97
and it has proved to be highly beneficial to schools when bench-marking
and monitoring achievement throughout the curriculum in English
and Mathematics in Years 3, 4 and 5.
If you are interested in this offer all you need to do at this
stage is complete and return the Acceptance Slip to L2A centre.
Full instructions on sending data by e-mail, floppy disc from
within EXCEL or SIMS programs is provided as well as examples
of how the data and results are presented. We hope that you will
take advantage of this service and look forward to hearing from
you soon.
Graham Osborne
Director
The
following text outlines the details of our External Marking Service
Our
External Marking Service for UK primary schools involves the
marking and analysis of QCA Optional Tests in Reading Comprehension,
Spelling & Writing components, Written Mathematics and Mental
Maths skills for UK National Curriculum Years 3, 4 & 5.
There are two distinct components to our service; (1)
marking and (2) item analysis.
Within both services you
may make further choices;
Options 1A, 1B, 1C Marking individual subjects
Options 2A, 2B, 2C Item Analysis of individual subjects that we have marked
Options 3A, 3B, 3C Item Analysis of individual subjects & data input internally
marked by schools.
How
will our service help your school?
Our panel
of experienced markers will mark your English (Reading, Spelling
& Writing) and Mathematics (Written and
Mental Maths) Optional Test scripts and the results will be returned
to you with your scripts. (Option 1)
The results
will show your pupils raw scores, test levels and age-standardized
scores.
Our Item
Analysis service is performed after the marking stage.
Each students
question-level responses will be entered into an EXCEL spreadsheet.
You will
be able to be import these files into your school data base.
These files
are compatible with the DfES Pupil Achievement Tracker (PAT)
and other database software such as SIMS, INTEGRA & Wauton
Samuel.
Using
your year 3, 4 and 5 pupils QCA optional test results, we will
produce a report containing a comprehensive set of tables and
charts that clearly illustrate your pupils performance.
The report
will help you to;
- compare
your students overall performance
- compare
the performance of particular groups of students using; standard
age, gender and class
- compare
your school results with the national picture by using; Level
and DfES point score
- track
individual student performance
- identify
areas of strength & weakness in Reading, Writing, Spelling
& Mathematics
- make
predictions of future performance
If you
choose to use both
the
marking and analysis service (Option 2) you will benefit from additional
charts in your report showing analyses of your pupils responses
to individual questions, and analyses of responses aggregated
by question type.
If you
want to mark your own tests you can send your pupils' scripts
to us and use the Item
Analysis
service only. (Option
3)
How
does the service work?
- Complete
the Acceptance
Slip
and return it to L2A centre.
- Send
us class lists (by email or floppy disc) with the names of each
pupil who will take the tests along with their date of birth,
gender, class and year group.
- L2A will acknowledge receipt
of the Acceptance Slip and return instructions to you via email.
- Your
pupil test scripts will be returned to you with the results within
a 3-4 week turnaround.
(If you
have not asked us to mark your tests you may send your tests
to us and we will perform the Item Analysis on these scripts).
How
much does the service cost?
Option 1A Marking & Statistical Report for both
subjects £6.95 per pupil
We will mark
the Reading Comprehension, Spelling & Writing, Written Mathematics
& Mental Mathematics. The results for the Reading are shown
as; Raw Score, & Level. The Mathematics results are shown
as; Raw Score combined with Mental Raw for the Maths Level. The
Writing Level is a combination of Writing marks with the Spelling
grade. A fourth column shows the converted DfES point score,
which can be used for comparative benchmarking. Averages are
included. Remember that Yr3 & 4 Written Mathematics must
sit Paper A or B but not both. Yr5 has two separate papers:
Part A & Part B.
Option 1 (B / C) External Marking & Statistical Report for
one subject only
1B English
Reading Comprehension, Spelling & Writing £5.25 per
pupil
1C Maths
Written Mathematics, Mental Mathematics
£5.25 per pupil
1D Writing papers
(2 genres) £2.25 per pupil
We also offer comprehensive Item
Analysis of each subject that we have marked. This is performed
on every individual student script and records their response
for each question. The Level, DfES point score, and averages
are included. The Writing Component is shown as a series of graphs
that display grade distribution over the two tasks.
Option 2A External Marking & Item Analysis all subjects £10.00 per pupil
2B English Reading Comprehension, Spelling & Writing £6.75 per pupil
2C Maths Written Mathematics, Mental Mathematics £6.75 per pupil
Option 3A Input
of data from Optional tests all subjects £6.00 per
pupil
(We will perform Item Analysis
on scripts marked internally by the school)
3B Reading Comprehension paper £2.50 per pupil
3C Maths papers
Part A & B - Mental paper £3.00
per pupil
3D Writing papers (2 genres) & Spelling paper £3.25
per pupil
-
What
data do we need?
We will need
to have 4 or 5 (optional; if more than one class per year group)
pieces of information in EXCEL spreadsheet format. The columns
are as follows;
1. Last Name,
2. First Name, 3. Class, 4. Gender (M / F), 5. Date of Birth
D.O.B
If you have more
than one class per year group then include an extra column (e.g.
CLASS).
Save the data
into an EXCEL spreadsheet in one of the following formats - CSV,
text, or DIF.
What
will the results look like?
Each
test will have a column of data showing;
Standard
Age
Std Age
- this is a standard age score generated from the statistical
tables
Raw
score Reading
Comprehension, Spelling, Writing component ,
Written & Mental Maths
Level
LVL
- Reading, Writing, Maths
DfES
Point Score - PtSc
- this converts the Level to a numerical score for comparison
There
are also graphs which match the data.
How
do I sign up for the service?
If you are interested in this
service all you need to do at this stage is complete and return
the Acceptance Slip to L2A centre.
" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acceptance
Slip
School: ______________________________________
Head teacher: _________________________________
Address: _________________________________________________
Local Education Authority: ___________________________________
Tel: ____________________________
Fax: ___________________________
E-mail: ________________________
Marking options (please
tick)
External Marking
only
External Marking
& Item Analysis
SCHOOL Marked
scripts & Item Analysis
School data will be sent on disc
Test data should be returned
on disc
by email
Approx dates when scripts or
data will be sent: ____________________
Office use only: -------------------------------------------------------------------------
EM 2005
Date scripts received:
No. of scripts received:
Date scripts returned:
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