Research and analysis

A recent history of regulatory perspectives on inter-subject comparability in England

A review of inter-subject comparability in England over the past few decades.

Applies to England and Northern Ireland

Documents

A Recent History of Regulatory Perspectives on Inter-Subject Comparability in England: ISC Working Paper 5

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Details

Although we are the first official regulator of qualifications and exams in England, a succession of official bodies has supervised the operation of school exams since 1917, when the Board of Education constituted the Secondary Schools Examinations Council to “ensure a general equivalence of standards between the approved examining bodies”.

This report has been written to illustrate how this challenging policy area has been navigated over the past few decades:

  • by successive supervisory bodies – the ‘regulators’ that operated prior to our establishment
  • by prominent figures associated with those bodies
  • and by committees appointed by those bodies

Updates to this page

Published 18 December 2015

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