My daughter did the Ella test (DET) last year and she received a mark in writing that was about the 60% mark. My daughter has always functioned in the top of the state in writing. In her two previous University writing competitions that she entered she acheived 97% in the State in each of them. On her previous basic skills tests her results had put her at the top point of the highest band. My daughter said that it was just not possible and asked me to challenge the mark so that she could see what was going on. We have a history of having to challenge marks ever since we made some public complaints about the Education Department and there has always being something wrong with them. My daughter is sensitive about her marks.
A request for documents and information was before the Administrative Decisions Tribunal as they wouldn't tell me who marked my daughters writing. They told me that they would not investigate our allegations of bias in the marking of the paper because the markers didn't know me or my daughter and therefore there was no motive. Then they say that they don’t know who the markers are.
IN a statement filed in the Court from a Business Manager with Salmat (formerly known as CM Solutions), it said:-
“The NSW Department of Education and Training has a contract with Salmat for the production and marking of the English Language and Literacy Assessment (ELLA) tests. Salmat in turn has a contract with Educational Assessment Australia (EAA) which supplies markers to mark the tests. EAA is a business subsidiary of the University of New South Wales. Prior to the sitting of the ELLA TESTS, EAA provides a list of the proposed markers to me. The individual markers are discussed at meetings attended by representatives from EAA, Salmat and the Department of Education (the Department). This list does not match the names of the individual markers to the test papers they mark as this is made before the tests are conducted. There are two markers allocated to each paper – a day group which mark task 1 and a night group which mark task 2
The markers are each allocated a number by EAA. The marker puts their number on the paper where it says “marked by”. Ten per cent of the papers are double marked and the group leader or senior marker will also put their number on those papers to show that they have been checked by them. Salmat is never issued with a list of the names corresponding to the markers’ numbers since EAA have informed us that they could no longer do that for privacy reasons. The Department does not have that information either. There is an agreement between the Educational Measurement Directorate of the Department and EAA that after seeing the list of markers it will be destroyed. That agreement has been in place for over three years now.
Therefore there is no way the Department or Salmat could match a marker’s name to the number from any information in their possession. The test papers are destroyed 12 months after the test. An electronic version is kept but the area showing the number is not kept”.
……..Given that there are so many racist, prejudiced and biased people out there, some could even be employed by the Department of Education. How could they not have a system in place that ensures that marking is prejudice free and there is fairness and equity and where they can identify discrimination, prejudice and bias. How easy is it otherwise to discriminate and segregate when nobody knows or can work out who marked the paper and as a result nobody will investigate your claims?
There were a number of areas in the ELLA writing that my daughter questioned as being highly unlikely. One was a zero marking for punctuation. It seemed like a hard marking when all that was and is missing is the pressing down of one full stop at the bottom of an exclamation mark, the rest of the punctuation is all in tact and complete.
In the marking manual that I got under FOI it said: “If sentence punctuation is not evident or there are only one or two sentences, colour 0 in column 14”. It doesn’t add up, my daughter wrote the whole page and included punctuation; it appears on the copy that she only forgot to press one full stop at the bottom of an exclamation mark, or didn't press it hard enough. How could she get 0 for punctuation? Two executive re-marks then were said to agree with the original marking!.
Did you know that if you ask for a re-mark there are no guidelines or policies that they have to follow? They can just say “Yep, we agree with the mark that was previously given” and that’s it.
I am concerned that this is how they deal with executive re-marks including at HSC level. It isn't fair. Students work very hard and they deserve to be treated fairly and they deserve to have a system in place that ensures that if they ask for a re-mark it is done impartially and fairly and that it is based on merit. The way it is now it just works to cover up the Departments failures in marking and gives them an avenue to discriminate without question or challenge.
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