Reformed functional skills mathematics: evaluation of difficulty
An evaluation of the expected difficulty of sample assessments in 2019.
Applies to England
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This research was carried out pre-pandemic, in 2019, as part of our normal technical evaluation.
Functional skills maths teachers judged how difficult their students would find individual questions from both live legacy assessments and the sample assessments for reformed qualifications using a comparative judgement technique. From this we obtained measures of expected difficulty for all questions.
We found only small differences in expected difficulty between sample assessments offered by each awarding organisation, which could be accommodated when setting pass boundaries. We also found the expected difficulty between legacy and reformed qualifications was very similar.
More recently, some education and training representative bodies have commented they believe reforms to functional qualifications in 2019 have made them more difficult. Ofqual’s Chief Regulator, Dr Jo Saxton, has heard the concerns that people within the sector have raised. Ofqual will continue to monitor and evaluate these qualifications and to listen to the sector.