Examinations, justice and persistent change

GCSE examinations should be ‘thoroughly overhauled’ Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of Ofsted, said on the Andrew Marr Show this morning.  Few would disagree with him especially those students whose futures may have been blighted by the failure of the system in English this summer.  Never in all my years’ teaching have I witnessed such an obvious case of injustice in examinations.  It’s nothing to do with rigour or the weasel words of the head of Ofqual that those in January were just lucky to have the grade boundary between C and D ten points lower than in the summer.  Yes students do get grade D when they are predicted, perhaps too optimistically, a grade C, often a crude belief in hope over expectation but what has occurred is, by any definition of the term, unjust. 
I must admit I have never fully understood why grade boundaries have to change year on year (and it should be year on year) unless you are statistically seeking to limit the number of people who get particular grades.  If it is right that a student who scores 55 per cent gets a grade C one year, then I can see no reason why a student who gets 55 per cent the following year should not also get a grade C.  Although it’s been my experience in an option subject that some years are ‘better’ than others, over say a five year period the relative ability of students levelled out.  The only way you can really judge whether one cohort of students has done better or worse than the previous cohort is for the grade boundaries that do not change each year.  There is no reason why after grade boundaries set at one level should not be pushed up after a period of time as a means of encouraging progress but this should be known in advance so that teachers can prepare their students and students know what they have to achieve to achieve the omnipresent grade C. In that way you would have identifiable and known standards at GCSE.
This begs the question of whether we now need GCSE at all and, if we do, where it fits in the evaluation of student progress.  With the increase of the education leaving age at 18, there is a case for examinations at 18+, whether A Levels, vocational qualifications or achievement in apprenticeships as the medium through which schools are judged not GCSEs.  There is also a case for examination of students in all subjects at 11, 14, 16 and 18 but only if the aim of those evaluations is to be able to demonstrate how individual students have progressed.  I would much rather see a school judged, not by the percentage of students who get five A*-C including Maths and English, by the percentage of those students who have shown progress over their performance in the previous evaluation. 
Sir Michael may be right when he says that ‘Our youngsters, when they leave school, will be going into a global marketplace, they [just how many is unclear]have to compete not just against competitors here but the rest of the world’ but they won’t do so if the curriculum and examinations keep changing.  Neither will the persistent rhetoric from politicians that they intend to reverse ‘dumbing down’ that they initiated in the first place.  Mr Cameron said in the Mail on Sunday that there would be ‘no more excuses for failure in schools, no more soft exams and soft discipline’.  Careful for what you wish for David, the apple never falls far from the tree!  It little behoves politicians with their rhetoric of success and the reality of failure to lecture the public on what they will or not accept.

Change under Macquarie

Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, the fifth governor of NSW but the first military officer (Phillip, Hunter, King and Bligh had all been naval men) held office from April 1809 (he took up his commission as governor on 1 January 1810[1]) until his resignation in 1821. [2] As Governor of NSW, he also assumed control of the North Island of New Zealand by the appointment of a Justice of the Peace for the Bay of Islands.[3] After the military coup in 1808, the British Government decided to recall the NSW Corps and replaced them with the 73^rd Regiment.[4] As Macquarie was the officer commanding the 73^rd Regiment, he was at a distinct advantage to his predecessors as senior officer of the garrison as well as Governor. As with previous governors, Macquarie was given absolute authority to make laws and carry them out.[5] The first exercise of authority was in the revoking of all controversial actions of the rebel regime including government appointments, land grants, leases, sentences and pardons.[6] His Instructions were

To improve the Morals of the Colonists, to encourage marriage, to provide for Education, to prohibit the Use of Spirituous Liquors, to increase the Agriculture and Stock, so as to ensure the Certainty of a full supply to the Inhabitants under all Circumstances.[7]

Lachlan Macquarie attributed to John Opie , c.1805-1824

Macquarie insisted on morality, virtue and temperance.[8] He closed 55 inns[9] and increased tax on imported liquor, he remodelled the commissariat[10] and the organisation of the Police Fund as the basis of colonial revenue[11], levied customs duties, opened a new market place[12], created a coinage in 1813 to replace barter, (particularly the ‘rum currency’) and established the first bank in 1817.[13] He opened schools for the young so that the children would become better citizens than their parents.[14] He used emancipist settlers as teachers and eventually at his request, qualified teachers were sent out from England. He allowed ex-convicts to be re-admitted to the rank in society they had forfeited including appointing three emancipists (D’Arcy Wentworth, Andrew Thompson and Simeon Lord) as magistrates in 1810.[15] Macquarie founded new towns at Richmond, Castlereagh, Pitt Town, Wilberforce and Windsor now referred to as the five ‘Macquarie towns’ to the west of Sydney and expanded the settlement. He visited VDL twice[16], Newcastle and Illawarra[17] and founded Port Macquarie. He encouraged exploration including the crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813 and opening access to western lands and was responsible for the extension of the colony.[18] Macquarie was also responsible for expanding the public works programme including the first general post office[19], new army barracks, a road to Parramatta from Sydney and a new general hospital. Overall he was responsible for 265 public works of varying scale during his administration, many the work of his chief architect Francis Greenway, an ex-convict.[20] They included new army barracks and three new barrack buildings for convicts, roads to Parramatta and across the Blue Mountains, a hospital, castle-like stables and five planned towns built out of reach of floodwaters along the Hawkesbury River. Central to Macquarie’s administration was his concern for public morality. In some of his earliest orders the prevailing habit of cohabiting without marriage was denounced[21], constables were directed to enforce laws against Sabbath breaking[22] and a regular church parade was introduced for convicts in government employment.[23] It seemed that he was successful in increasing ‘Religious Tendency and Morals’ as both church going and the marriage rate increased.

As the strongest inducement to reform Macquarie decided that ex-convicts, when they had shown that they deserved the favour, should be readmitted to the rank in society they had forfeited. This policy was approved by Liverpool as well as by Wilberforce and the select committee on transportation in 1812, but it aroused immediate indignation among immigrant settlers and military officers and alienated the very classes whose co-operation Castlereagh had advised him to foster. By 1818, he went so far as to suggest the cessation for three years of all immigration apart from ‘respectable Monied Men’. He had found many of the free immigrants unsatisfactory settlers and disapproved of their reluctance to fraternise with ex-convicts.

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[1] Macquarie’s arrival and his proclamation on 1 January 1810 are dealt with in HRNSW, Vol. 7, pp. 252-253, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, pp. 226-227.

[2] McLachlan, N.D., ‘Macquarie, Lachlan (1762-1824), ADB, Vol. 2, pp. 187-195, Ellis, M.H., Lachlan Macquarie: His Life, Adventures and Times, (Dymock’s Book Arcade) 1947, 2^nd ed., (Angus & Robertson), 1952 and Ritchie, John, Lachlan Macquarie: a biography, (Melbourne University Press), 1986 are useful biographies. Macquarie, Lachlan, Journal of his Tours of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land 1810-1822, (Trustees of the Public Library of New South Wales), 1956 provides his own view of governing NSW and VDL. Ibid, Atkinson, Alan, The Europeans in Australia, Vol. 1, pp. 317-342.

[3] New Zealand was part of NSW from 1788 until 1840 when it was proclaimed as a separate colony.

[4] Castlereagh to the Admiralty, 2 May 1809 and Under-Secretary Cooke to Quartermaster-General Gordon, 11 May 1809, HRNSW, Vol. 7, pp. 112-113, 141 detail the recall of the NSW Corps.

[5] T.W. Plummer to Macquarie, 4 May 1809, HRNSW, Vol. 7, pp. 113-124 provides a detailed critique of the situation in NSW and the need for reform. Macquarie’s commission and instructions dated 9 May 1809 are printed in HRNSW, Vol. 7, pp. 126-140, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, pp. 183-197. See also Castlereagh to Macquarie, 14 May 1809, HRNSW, Vol. 7, pp. 143-147

[6] See the two proclamations issued on 4 January 1810, HRNSW, Vol. 7, pp. 255-259, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, pp 227-231.

[7] See, HRNSW, Vol. 7, p. 137.

[8] See Proclamation, 24 February 1810, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, pp. 278-279.

[9] Government and General Order, 16 February 1810, HRNSW, Vol. 7, pp. 289-290.

[10] Macquarie to Castlereagh, 30 April 1810, HRNSW, Vol. 7, pp. 353-354, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, p. 248.

[11] Macquarie to Liverpool, 18 October 1811, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, pp. 385-386.

[12] Macquarie to Liverpool, 18 October 1811, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, p. 386.

[13] The formation of a bank was first raised in Macquarie to Castlereagh, 30 April 1810, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, p. 264-266 and again 27 October 1810, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, p. 343. The issue continued to be raised in correspondence, see, Liverpool to Macquarie, 26 July 1811, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, p. 365.

[14] Macquarie to Castlereagh, 27 October 1810, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, p. 246.

[15] Macquarie to Castlereagh, 30 April 1810, HRNSW, Vol. 7, p. 356-357, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, p. 276.

[16] Macquarie’s first tour of VDL occurred in 1811: Macquarie to Liverpool, 18 October 1811, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, pp. 378-280, Macquarie to Liverpool, 17 November 1812, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, pp. 581-589 contained Macquarie’s report on the administration of VDL not contained in the Journal. Macquarie announced his intention to tour VDL a second time in Macquarie to Bathurst, 21 March 1821, HRA, Series I, Vol. 10, p. 492. The tour is reported in Macquarie to Bathurst, 17 July 1821, HRA, Series I, Vol. 10, p. 500. Macquarie stated that he has published a Government and General Order, 16 July 1821, giving an account of his ‘Observations and remarks and that he enclosed a copy’, pp. 501-507. Mitchell Library: A777 Journal to and from Van Diemen’s Land 1811 and A784 Journal of A Tour of Inspection in Van Diemen’s Land 1821 are more detailed. See also Sydney Gazette 11 January 1812, pp. 1-2 and Sydney Gazette 21 July 1821.

[17] Macquarie refers to the Northern Settlements at Port Macquarie and Newcastle 1821 in Macquarie to Bathurst, 30 November 1821, HRA, Series I, Vol. 10, p. 573: ‘I have lately made Tours of inspection to the Northern Settlements at Newcastle and Port Macquarie, and afterwards to Bathurst and Illawarra or Five Islands; all of which are fine rich fertile Districts, and promise at no distant period to prove most valuable acquisitions to the Parent Colony. The result of My Observations on these Tours of Inspection I shall do myself the honor of reporting to Your Lordship in Person, on my arrival in England.’ Macquarie must have completed this Despatch some weeks after the date 30 November 1821. He returned to Sydney from the tour to the Northern Settlements on 21 November 1821, travelled to Bathurst and back 15-26 December 1821 and travelled to Illawarra and back 9-17 January 1822. Macquarie’s journals are Mitchell Library: A781 Journal to and from Newcastle, A783 Journal of A Tour of Inspection to Bathurst in Decr. 1821 and A786 Journal of a Tour to the Cow Pastures and Illawarra/in January 1822.

[18] On his tour of the interior in 1810, see, Macquarie to Liverpool, 18 October 1811, HRA, Series I, Vol. 7, pp. 378-380 and of the Bathurst Plains, Macquarie to Bathurst, 24 June 1815, HRA, Series I, Vol. 8, p. 557. Macquarie wrote in Government and General Order 10 June 1815, pp. 568-576 ‘For further Particulars...I take the Liberty to refer Your Lordship to the Accompanying Printed Report of my Tour, which I had published in the Sydney Gazette for the information of the Public (whose Curiosity was all alive on the Subject), soon after my return hither.’ Mitchell Library: A778 Journal of a Tour of Governor Macquarie’s first Inspection of the Interior of the Colony, commencing on Tuesday the 6th of Novr. 1810 and A779 Tour to the New Discovered Country in April 1815 is his detailed record. See also, Sydney Gazette 15 December 1810, p.1, Sydney Gazette 10 June 1815, The Naval Chronicle, Vol. 35, (January-June 1816), pp. 105-112, The Colonial Journal, Vol. 1, (January-July 1816), pp. 69-76 and New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register, Vol. 5, (25), 1 February, 1816, pp. 14-19.

[19] Government and General Order, 23 June 1810, HRNSW, Vol. 7, p. 389.

[20] Herman, Morton, ‘Greenway, Francis (1777-1837)’, ADB, Vol. 1, pp. 470-473. See also Ellis, M.H., Francis Greenway: His Life and Times, (Angus and Robertson), 1953.

[21] Proclamation, 24 February 1810, HRNSW, Vol. 7, pp. 292-294.

[22] See, Government and General Order, 27 January 1810 and 26 May 1810, HRNSW, Vol. 7, pp. 280-281, 382.

[23] Government and General Order, 19 May 1810, HRNSW, Vol. 7, p. 381.