The challenge of English oral assessment

Oracy is at the centre of the news. The education secretary, Lucy Powell, wants oracy to have “equal status” to reading and writing. With the importance of oracy set to be enshrined into new national curriculum and assessment, we need to ask an important question: how do you make oral assessments reliable and fair for all pupils? 

There are lessons from history to guide us when grappling with the challenge of oral assessment. To be exact, there are lessons from English language GCSE speaking and listening assessments over a decade ago.

Until 2014, speaking and listening (S&L) counted for a fifth of the crucial English language GCSE before Ofqual removed it. Glenys Stacey, the chief regulator, announced it was to be removed from counting in the GCSE. The argument was not that the skills of speaking didn’t matter, but that oral assessment could not be fairly judged. 

Teachers – including myself – were judging S&L outcomes to be better than any exam or written coursework grades. Stacey argued that with no record of performance, there was “no way to be sure that this difference is always justified."

Were teachers like me justified? Well, we saw the best in our pupils, understandably giving them the benefit of the doubt, whilst under the pressure of being judged by the same results. At the margin of giving grades in every school, that understandable credit meant universally high grades for S&L that were disconnected from written exam results.

In this context, the attempt to assess oracy reliably and fairly for all pupils didn't work nationally. If we believe in inclusion for all – such as pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, along with those with SEND needs, or with English as an additional language – then we must learn from the past.

The difference with the exam hall

Few people would describe themselves as die-hard fans of exams, but the controlled conditions of the exam hall are perhaps the fairest of conditions for all pupils at a national scale.

Paradoxically, perhaps, the classic exam is what I'd pick for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Every pupil sits the same exam, at the same time, in the same conditions. Whereas oral assessments can be more ephemeral (recordings aside), the record of the exam stays in print. Additionally, and crucially, exam assessment is not done by people under pressure to get children the outcomes that can mean so much to their future lives. 

All this being said, I would not romanticise the fairness and accuracy of the exam hall either. Ofqual’s own research on marking in English GCSE shows that markers award the same grade as a senior examiner around 55 to 60% of the time. The standards of written exam marking do not yet fill me with confidence for the significant challenge of assessing oracy reliably and fairly for all.

Since 2014, new qualifications have offered innovations that have worked well, such as the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). We needn't believe that assessment cannot improve or innovate, but we need to be clear about the challenge of doing so at scale.

How could oral assessment be made more effective and reliable? 

If we think that speaking and listening is the most valid way to assess some aspects of English knowledge, then it needs to be assessed reliably. It will likely need to be different to the type of oracy assessment solutions posed just over a decade ago.

Matching some of the controlled conditions of the exam hall is a starting point.

Here are some options that could be considered: 

• Record all of it. Assessment needs to be traced, checked, robustly moderated, and fairly appealed. Schools need the tech and time to do this expertly. Innovations to make this easy and affordable are likely needed.
• Standardise tasks for fairness. Like an exam, the same prompt, timing, questions, supports etc., could pose valid shared tasks with more reliable shared judgements (admittedly, this is difficult to do well!). Moderation could be scaled up and more substantive with shared, standardised tasks.
• Separate the assessor from the pupil’s own teacher. It is unfair to judge teachers on their pupils’ results and then expect them to mark those same pupils dispassionately. They have every reason, professional and human, to give the benefit of the doubt. Can exam boards assess instead of teachers? Can local schools moderate or similar?
• Exam boards should find affordable ways to assess and moderate. Exam boards should bring their expertise to the challenge of oral assessment. Schools could be supported with time and funding to undertake comparative judgement, or similar, to increase their reliability, but the biggest ask should posed to commissioned assessment experts on exam boards.
• Be open about bias and tackle it head on. Teachers, and examiners, can be biased by pupil characteristics such as SEND, race or social disadvantage. For example, pupils from working class backgrounds can be disadvantaged b accent bias. Being honest about these issues with oral assessment must be tackled, or privileging oracy might inadvertently disadvantage those pupils who already find learning hardest. 
• Consider the stakes. When S&L last counted for GCSEs, accountability drove generous or flawed marking at scale. If the stakes have not changed, how will the issues of a decade ago be avoided?

Let’s be clear: privileging oracy will require investment in time, people and building expertise. Any gaps could see struggling schools in poorer areas not most to make the change, or even be worse off. 

The most important challenge 

I wholly understand and share the ambition to pay more attention to improving the speech and language of pupils in England. For some children, it could be vital for their success. Not only that, but the notion of having broader assessments, rather than just exams, has a fair warrant too.

But I’ve been here before too. I've watched oral assessment disadvantage the poorest pupils, and privilege those whose voice fits all the assumptions of a successful speaker.

The most important question about the oral assessment challenge we must linger on: is it going to be fair and equitable for the children who already find learning hardest?

Related reading:

• In 2023, I wrote a blog entitled 'What is oracy anyway?' SEE HERE.
• My favourite classroom routine is probably ABC feedback, which helps pupils 'disagree agreeably'. READ ABOUT IT HERE.
• Sammy Wright has written an excellent blog this week entitled, 'Speaking and thinking' about talk in English classrooms in particular. SEE HERE.