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Deciding to provide a ‘reader’ in examinations for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE): questions about validity and ‘inclusion’
Author(s) -
Woods Kevin
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
british journal of special education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.349
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1467-8578
pISSN - 0952-3383
DOI - 10.1111/j.0952-3383.2004.00342.x
Subject(s) - certificate , inclusion (mineral) , reading (process) , psychology , medical education , school certificate , mathematics education , pedagogy , special educational needs , special education , medicine , computer science , social psychology , political science , algorithm , law
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) was designed as an ‘inclusive’ qualification, access to which has been supported by providing a ‘reader’ to some candidates during examinations. A candidate reading age criterion of ten years has been employed by the GCSE awarding bodies to determine eligibility for this provision. In this paper, Kevin Woods, a member of the Educational Support and Inclusion Research and Teaching Group in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manchester, examines the rationale and evidence for adopting this criterion and describes an investigation of the reading needs of a cross‐sectional sample of 38 GCSE examination candidates in trial examinations. The investigation found a low level of candidate need for a reader, with candidate reading age and self‐prediction being unreliable indicators of this need. Kevin Woods highlights the implications for the assessment process used to determine eligibility for a reader in GCSE examinations and pays particular attention to the feasibility and validity of including all students as eligible.