Scottish Parent Teacher Council

Higher still parent's survey - report

Year two

In June 2000 we undertook a survey to find out what parents thought of the first year of the new Higher Still courses and assessments. We deliberately chose June so that the responses would not be coloured by the results and we could get a true picture of what parents thought of the new programme. Little did we realise how prescient that decision would prove to be! As it was, a difficult maths paper clearly affected people's views and many respondents used the survey to give vent to their anger at what they saw as an unfair paper.

As events unfolded in 2000/01, following the disastrous issuing of results from the diet of 2000, we decided it would be useful to run the same survey again, at the same time - in June - to see if attitudes had changed. This we duly did, using the same methodology for distribution. The survey was altered only to take account of two facts: it was no longer the first year of implementation and English was the only subject that could be done in the old Higher format. This year, there was no obvious single event, comparable to the problem maths paper in diet 2000, to cloud respondents' views. We hope, therefore, to have achieved an accurate picture of what parents think.

Distribution and Response

In May, 1200 copies of the attached questionnaire were sent to 146 secondary schools in mainland Scotland for distribution to the parents of youngsters who had sat SQA exams as fifth year pupils. The schools were the 141 SPTC member secondary schools and 5 secondary schools in Glasgow chosen to redress our under-representation within that authority. Schools were sent 1 questionnaire per 100 pupils on the school roll, rounded to the nearest hundred. Each questionnaire (plus a freepost reply envelope) was in a stamped envelope ready for addressing and posting. Headteachers were sent a covering letter asking for their co-operation. In order to ensure a random distribution, we asked headteachers when sending the questionnaires to start at a specific letter and to treat the alphabet as a continuous loop where necessary.

We altered the wording in our covering letter to make our intention clearer and, although some then found us pedantic, the effort paid off, as the ongoing distribution was better. This year we only had two forms returned from the wrong year group. Overall we have evidence that 130 of the contacted schools sent the surveys on. We received 297 responses from parents at 111 named and nine unnamed secondary schools; 50% came from the parents of girls, 42% from the parents of boys and 8% did not say. The overall response is comparable to last year when we had 284 responses from 97 schools but the gender distribution is more equal. We would like to thank all schools who distributed the questionnaire and all parents who responded.

Subjects and Levels

Overall, the pupils in our survey took 41 different subjects and 1,398 courses. This broke down as 1096 Highers, (including 73 old Highers in English), 232 Intermediate 2, 48 Intermediate1 and 22 free standing units. There was a shift to Intermediate level courses, which, this year, comprised 20% of all courses compared to 11% last year. However, the most noticeable difference from last year was the increase in the percentage of pupils taking five subjects. This was up to 79% compared to 59% last year, with 44% taking five Highers, up from 36% last year. In these groups, there were only slight gender differences.

The most popular subjects, as last year, were English and Maths followed by the three sciences.

Table 1 Subjects by level and type taken by more than 20 pupils

Subject	H(OH)	Int2	Int1	Other	Total
English	142(73)	61	9	2	287
Maths	177	55	15	1	248
Chemistry	111	3			114
Physics	97	14	1		112
Biology (including Human Biology)	70	23		1	94
French/German	59	4			63
History	54	3	2	1	60
Geography	49	6	1		56
Art & Design	49	2	2	1	54
Computing	39	5	5	1	50
Modern Studies	40	2	1		43
Music	23	3		1	27
PE	13	5	4	3	25
Information Systems	12	8			20

Music, PE and Information Systems are additions to this table this year.

Table 2 Top ten subjects by gender

Girls	%Girls	Boys	%Boys
English	97%	English	97%
Maths	82%	Maths	90%
Biology	41%	Physics	52%
Chemistry	40%	Chemistry	38%
French/German	31%	Computing	26%
Physics	28%	History	19%
History	20%	Biology	18%
A&D	20%	Geography	17%
Geography	19%	Modern Studies	15%
Modern Studies	13%	A&D	14%

A review of the subjects taken by boys and girls showed the expected difference in choice. Boys focused more on maths-based subjects such as physics and computing, with only 10% doing either French/German. In contrast girls were more likely to take biology and French/ German with only 8% choosing computing. PE, whilst not featuring in the top ten of either gender, was far more popular with boys than with girls.

Course content

Parents were asked to assess course content as being "excellent", "satisfactory" or "poor". The majority rated it "satisfactory" with more saying it was "excellent" than said it was "poor". The "excellent" rating was up for all groups and only 2% said the course content was "poor".

Table 3 Percentage ratings for course content

Comment	All	Girls	Boys
Excellent	18%	21%	17%
Satisfactory	75%	74%	75%

Course Work

Parents were asked whether they felt that the amount of hand-in work required was "reasonable", "excessive" or "unknown". Most people regarded it as "reasonable" although girls' parents were more likely than boys' parents to regard it as "excessive".

Table 4 Percentage ratings for amount of course work

Comment	All	Girls	Boys
Reasonable	77%	75%	78%
Excessive	15%	18%	11%
Unknown	5%	4.0	4.8

Internal Assessments

Parents were given a range of comments on internal assessments and asked to tick all that applied. They were also asked to indicate if a specific comment applied only to one subject.

Table 5 Percentage ratings on Internal Assessments

Comment	All	Girls	Boys	5H	<5Subs
Generally helpful	52	49	54	52	50
Kept your son/daughter focused on work	56	53	57	55	60
A poor indicator of what the final exam would be like	46	50	46	59	34
There was too much internal assessment	35	37	34	45	17
Well spaced	26	22	32	22	23
There were too many assessments close together	46	56	35	56	31
It was very stressful	34	41	27	38	29

Last year we analysed the responses by gender and found boys' parents were slightly more positive about internal assessment. However, this time we also analysed responses by volume of work by looking at the responses of those who had taken five Highers and those who had taken less than five subjects. (Both these subgroups had a reasonable gender balance). Our findings indicate that volume mattered.

Whilst all groups found the internal assessments generally helpful and good in keeping the students focused, 45% of those who had taken five Highers said that there had been "too much" against a survey norm of 35% and a figure of 17% from those taking less than five subjects. Similarly those taking five Highers were more likely than the survey norm - and much more likely than those taking less than five subjects - to say that the internal assessments were a poor indicator of the final exam. When it came to saying that there had been too many assessments too close together, then 56% of girls and of those taking 5 Highers made this observation in contrast to 35% of boys and 31% of those taking less than five subjects.

We then went back to the data from 2000 and discovered that there was a similar disparity of view between the overall average, those taking five Highers and those taking less than five subjects. This was most marked over the observation that there were too many assessments close together. The survey average was 46% whereas 64% of those taking five Highers made this comment against only 28% of those taking less than five subjects.

As a consequence of these findings we worked out a ratio of good to bad comments for the different groups in the two different years and these are given in table 6. The survey offered seven comment options, three of which can be judged as positive and four of which can be judged as negative. In compiling the survey, we deliberately put two positive comments first, so that we would not get an artificially high negative response from those who routinely choose the first two in any list. The ratio is the sum of the percentage of positive comments compared to the sum of the percentage of negative comments. Those taking five Highers are considerable more negative than the average, whilst those taking less than five subjects have a positive ratio despite the fact that there were more negative options. The pattern holds true for both 2000 and 2001, giving added strength to the conclusion that volume matters.

Table 6: Ratio of good: bad comments in 2000 and 2001

Group	2000 good : bad	2001 good : bad
Survey average	126 :147	134 :161
Five Highers	115 :176	129 :198
< Five subjects	127 :108	133 :111

Over and above the general comments on internal assessments, respondents were given a chance to comment on specific subjects. The most frequently made specific comments were that the internal assessments were a poor indicator of the final exam, that there was too much and that there were too many too close together. The most frequently made observation was for maths where the internal assessments were seen as poor indicator of the final exam.

External Exams

Table 7 Percentage ratings on External Exams

Comment	All	Girls	Boys	5Hs	<5Subs
Easy	*	*	*	*	*
Fair	61	60	64	73	45
Hard	42	48	34	36	47
Well spaced	41	38	47	45	24
Too close together	29	36	23	35	29
Similar to school tests	20	19	21	21	15
Quite different from school tests	46	50	43	49	37

*Only 4 respondents said that the external exam was easy and whilst 3 took five subjects, none took five Highers.

Overall, 61% said that the external exams were fair but this figure rose to 73% for those taking five Highers and fell to only 45% for those taking less than five subjects. However, girls were most likely and boys least likely to rate the exams as hard. People generally agreed that the exams were quite different from the school tests, although those taking less than five subjects were least critical of this aspect. Again, respondents were invited to comment on individual subjects and the most frequent observations were that a particular exam was hard - maths was cited most often, closely followed by English - or that particular subjects had been too close together - again English and maths were a common pairing. However, the 28 who identified the maths exam as being hard fell far short of the 109 who made this observation last year - evidence that some changes have been successful! Another change from last year is that the overall percentage who said that the external exams were different from the school tests was up to 46% from 38%, whilst the number of subject specific complaints in this score fell from 25% to 6%. Last year's high figure was also the product of the problem maths paper.

As last year, respondents were both positive and negative about the same aspect of Higher Still so, of those who said that the external exams were quite different from the school tests, 53% also said that the internal tests had helped keep their son/daughter focused.

New Aspects of Higher Still

Table 8 Percentage ratings of Awareness of New Aspects of Higher Still (percentages for 2000 are given in brackets)

Level	Very aware	Aware	Vaguely aware	Not a clue
Five new levels of qualification Access -Advanced Higher	28 (25)	33 (36)	18 (21)	18 (15)
Core Skills	8 (11)	31 (24)	29 (27)	26 (37)
Scottish Group Awards	6 ( 8)	13 (12)	21 (28)	54 (49)
Vocational and Academic courses available	7 ( 9)	23 (22)	29 (27)	35 (38)

Parents were asked how aware they were of various new aspects of Higher Still. In general parental awareness had changed very little from 2000 - apart from a shift to the central options on core skills - despite all the publicity about the new certificate. As last year, parents had a reasonable understanding of the different levels, but were fairly ignorant of core skills, Scottish Group Awards and that there were vocational and academic courses available. Overall the highest level of ignorance was again of Scottish Group Awards. None of the subgroups considered had a pattern of awareness that was much at variance from the general one.

Comments

Finally we invited respondents to make general comments and 41% (122) took up the opportunity. Of this group, 43% were the parents of boys and 51% were the parents of girls, which was in line with the overall pattern of response to the survey. The following section details the issues raised in order of frequency and gives the percentage of commentators who referred to each topic. The percentages do not add up to 100% as some parents raised more than one issue.

Internal Assessment - 38%

In general respondents were critical of internal assessment. The observations included the following points

there was too much internal assessment and it detracted from teaching
"For my academic son the year has been an endless grinding litany of internal assessments".
the volume of internal assessment became unreasonable when the student was taking five subjects
"Workload became excessive because of the number of subjects. Internal assessments are good in theory but stressful in practice"
too many internal assessments came at the end of the course and got in the way of revision
"The timing of the final exam combined with the amount of course work meant several assessments were being sat in one week before finals began thus causing added stress".
the level of the internal assessments was too low and so a poor preparation for the exam "The internal assessments were unnecessary, caused stress and didn't give an indication of what the exam was like - they were lower than C level".
resits caused problems
"Stress built up when an internal assessment was failed and had to be resat at the same time as revising for another".
it wasn't right that students couldn't get the course award unless they passed all the units.
"My son failed a unit assessment because it coincided with others. He was not allowed to resit. It seems unfair he will not get the course even if he passes the external"

Some respondents did reflect the general ambiguity towards internal assessments.

" Work load became excessive because of the number of subjects. Internal Assessments are good in theory but stressful in practice, although they help with revision and highlight problem areas throughout the year"

Specific Subjects - 24%

Amongst the range of specific subjects, Art and Design and English attracted the most comments. These covered complaints on course content, the way the subject was taught, lack of time in the final exam, lack of specific resources, poor teaching, the amount of work required, a failure to cover the course completely. However, unlike last year when people were very exercised by maths, there was no one topic dominating these subject specific comments.

Higher Still System - 12%

As with the above topic, comments ranged across a number of specific issues such as "Strathclyde University will not accept Administration Higher as an entrance qualification for their Business School" and "I am disappointed that the results are due on the first day back at school". However a number of respondents did criticise the whole Higher Still programme finding it "not as taxing as the old style Higher" or "the education provided today focuses mainly on passing exams and not educating our young people".

Criticism of Survey - 10%

Inevitably the survey itself came in for criticism, the main criticism being that we were asking parents when we should be asking pupils. Our favourite comment was "I did attend a school meeting about this but I rely on the professionalism of the teachers so that I don't have to know the details. Are you aware of what I do in my job - I don't think so. Questions like this are asked only when things go wrong.". One complaint highlighted the problems involved in communicating with parents via schools. "If you wanted this form back by 30th June, it would have been helpful if it had arrived before and not after this date". The survey is clearly dated 10th May when we sent it out.

External exams - 8%

As already mentioned, there were some subject specific complaints about lack of time in the external exam. However, in general comments here concerned the proximity of exams one to another, but not always that they were too close. One parent observed, "Ten days between some exams was too long" whilst another commented, "In general I think the exams were too well spaced as my son lost incentive to study towards the last exam" and a third said, "More space between important exams is necessary. Our son had 2 exams within the first 3 days, then none for 11 school days and the rest packed into 4 days when he should have returned to school and 6th year". All of which proves how difficult it is to get the exam timetable right for everyone.

Comments here all focused on the problem of fitting all the necessary work into the short academic year. Parents reported work being rushed or not completed and one observed, "There's no scope for a period of absence by either student or, more importantly, staff".

Lack of information - 7%

There were general complaints about the overall lack of information to parents and more particularly about the lack of information on the specific features of Higher Still listed in the questionnaire. To quote one parent, "There's been no mention of Scottish Group Awards or of vocational and academic courses to either fourth or fifth year students to date"

Positive comment - 4%

The small group of positive comments focused on the availability of the Intermediate levels. As one parent said, "I feel the Intermediate 1 and 2 levels give children the chance to further their education perhaps�to a level that they may not have had the chance to do"

Level of courses - 3%

Comments in this category concerned the jump in the level of the course from Standard Grade.

In contrast to last year when teacher confusion seemed a widespread problem, only one person made this observation this year whilst another was concerned at an excessive use of supply teachers who lacked the required subject specialism.

Over 2000 and 2001, SPTC had a combined total of 581 survey responses from randomly chosen parents throughout Scotland and it has been useful to compare the differences and similarities of their views on Higher Still over those two years. The differences include an increased number of pupils taking five subjects and an increased uptake of the Intermediate courses - facts supported by SQA's figures which show an increase uptake in courses in general and of Intermediate level in particular.

It is also possible to identify the level of parental agitation caused by the problem maths paper in 2000. Last year, 48% of those who took maths complained that the external exam was hard compared to only 11% in 2001. Similarly, of those who commented last year, 23% - the largest group - made a complaint about maths. However, in 2001 only 5% made a specific comment about maths. Rather, internal assessment was the main topic for comment topic - raised by 38% compared to 21% last year.

One interesting difference is that, this year, more parents thought that the external exams were well spaced rather than too close together, reversing last year's view.

However, more interesting than the differences are the similarities between the two years. The most commonly taken subjects and the difference in subject choices between boys and girls remain constant. Parents continue to be generally satisfied with the way the courses are delivered in school. They give the same ambiguous message on internal assessment - they like it for keeping youngsters focused, but don't like the stress/work burden involved. The most common observation on the external exams was that these were "fair". The increased proportion making this observation in 2001 year would suggest that this was another area where parents' views had been affected by the problem maths paper in 2000. Additionally, parents' awareness of the features of Higher Still has changed remarkably little since last year, despite all the publicity.

However, the most interesting constant is the contrast in view on internal assessment between the five Highers group and the less than five subjects group. The former have an overall negative view of internal assessment whilst the latter have a positive view. Analysis of last year's data shows exactly the same variation. Moreover, this finding is supported by SQA's own analysis of pupils' views in 2000 when they found that the more able pupils were negative about internal assessments and the less able pupils were more positive.

This difference in view gets hidden when only overall averages are considered, but it goes to the very heart of the dilemma about internal assessment. It also helps explain the contrasting views of the school and FE sectors. In schools many pupils - and an increasing number by all accounts - take five subjects in one year and so face a heavy cumulative burden of internal assessment, whereas in FE students generally take fewer subjects and so the cumulative burden of assessment is lighter. As one parent said, "Internal Assessments are good in theory but stressful in practice".

The Higher Still dilemma is one of assessment overload and it could be resolved by making four subjects the normal maximum in schools, as suggested by one parent. "With many pupils staying on until 6th year I feel four Highers would be sufficient in 5th year. Pressure to constantly do well can result in "burn out" and loss of interest!" Alternatively there is a real need to reduce the burden of internal assessment, particularly within the school sector where the normal pattern of taking five subjects is, as another parent observed, coming to mean that "education provided today focuses mainly on passing exams and not educating our young people". Whatever decision is taken, the main findings of these surveys suggest that volume matters and that if Higher Still is really about providing opportunity for all, then different solutions have to be found to meet the different needs of different groups of students.

Scottish Parent Teacher Council

July 2001

Questionnaire

10th May 2001

Dear Parent,

HIGHER STILL SURVEY

Last year SPTC carried out a survey of parents to find out what they thought about the new Higher Still/National qualification courses. The results were fed into the Scottish Executive's review of the programme and will help shape any changes. This year we are repeating the survey to find out how/if parents' views have changed and are again asking a sample of parents in our member schools for their views. The survey is funded totally by SPTC. We are sending this survey via your school with the support of your head teacher and the results will again be fed into the Higher Still review group of which we are a member. I hope you will take time to answer the questions below. If you wish to add any other comments please feel free to do so. Thank you for your time.

Name of school

Please indicate who sat the exams? son / daughter

SUBJECTS

Which subjects, and at what level, did your son/daughter take?

Subject	Level - i.e. Higher, Intermediate 1 or 2. (Write "OH" for the old Higher English.).
1
2
3
4
5

COURSE CONTENT

As far as you are aware, was the overall fifth year course excellent / satisfactory / poor

Would you exclude any subjects from this overall view? If so, which.

..................................................................................................................

COURSE WORK

As far as you were aware, was the amount of hand-in work

required of your son/daughter during the year ; ; reasonable / excessive / don't know

Would you exclude any subjects from this general view? If so please indicate which.

..................................................................................................................

INTERNAL ASSESSMENT (School tests)

In general, how did you view the internal assessment? - Please tick all that apply and, if it applies to only one subject, please indicate which one in the final column.

Generally helpful
kept your son/daughter focused on work
a poor indicator of what the final exam would be like
there was too much internal assessment
well spaced
there were too many assessments close together
it was very stressful

EXTERNAL EXAMS

In general how did you view the final exams? Please tick all that apply and, if it applies to only one subject, indicate which one in the final column.

Easy
Fair
Hard
well spaced
too close together
similar to school tests
quite different from school tests

ASPECTS OF HIGHER STILL

The Higher Still Programme has a number of features listed below. Please tick how aware you are of the following:

Feature	very aware	aware	vaguely aware	not a clue
1. Five levels - Access to Advanced Higher
2. Core Skill
3. Scottish Group Awards
4. Vocational and Academic courses available

COMMENTS

..................................................................................................................

01 Jul 2001

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