Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 October 2020
273. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Education if an organisation (details supplied) or another independent body will carry out a full audit of the coding provided by a company for the leaving certificate 2020 calculated grades process following the discovery of additional errors during the review by the organisation of a sample of the coding; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30186/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe decision to adopt a model of Calculated Grades by my Department was a result of COVID-19, which prevented the State from running the conventional Leaving Certificate Examinations this year. The system of Calculated Grades is a complex and sophisticated system. It had to be developed from scratch, specifically for the Irish Leaving Certificate, and within an extremely tight timeframe in order for students to get their Calculated Grades results in time.
Education Testing Services (ETS) was appointed to carry out an audit of a sampling of the coding following the discovery of two coding errors. This work needed to be carried out within a very short timeframe in order to issue revised results to students to enable them to receive new CAO offers where the upgrades gave rise to this. Based on their expert judgement, ETS identified key parts of the software and components to be examined.
On 3 October, I announced that I had asked that an independent comprehensive review of the design and implementation of the Calculated Grades process should take place when the process is complete. The independent review will consider key aspects of the Calculated Grades process. This will include: the initial decision to adopt the calculated grades model; whether the process met its objectives; how effective the process was; how that process worked in terms of design and implementation; and how effective were the governance and oversight procedures. The review will also encompass lessons that can be learned for the future.
The full scope of the review will be clearly set out in advance.
