Kathleen Tattersall

Kathleen Tattersall OBE (11 April 1942 – 23 January 2013) was a British educationalist, specialising in examination administration. She was the leader of five examination boards in the United Kingdom before becoming the first head of exams regulator Ofqual.

Early life

Kathleen Tattersall was born in Burnley on 11 April 1942, the only child of Tom and Ellen Tattersall (née Mason).[1] She studied at the University of Manchester, gaining a bachelor's degree in 1963, Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in 1964 and, later, a Master of Education degree in 1975.[2]

Teaching career

Upon completing her PGCE, Tattersall spent the next seven-and-a-half years as a teacher, working in three different types of school from the mid-1960s to early 1970s. She began as a history teacher at Paddock House Convent Grammar School in Oswaldtwistle.[2] Wishing to escape 'the oppressive nature of the examinations system', she moved to St. Augustine's Junior School in Burnley.[3][2] This move was short-lived, as Tattersall found working at a primary school exposed 'all [her] faults and limitations as a teacher'.[3] She returned to secondary education, becoming head of history at St Hilda's Roman Catholic Girls' High School, a comprehensive school, also in Burnley.[2] It was at this school that Tattersall first taught for Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) exams, as well as O Level and A Level.[3]

Exam boards administrator

Despite having no experience as an examiner, Tattersall successfully applied to be an assistant secretary (manager) at the Associated Lancashire Schools Examining Board (ALSEB), the smallest of England's 13 regional CSE examination boards, beginning employment in 1972.[3] She worked her way up to deputy secretary before becoming secretary (leader) of the ALSEB in 1982.[2]

Tattersall jumped directly from the smallest CSE board to the largest when she became head of the neighbouring North West Regional Examinations Board (NWREB) in 1985.[2] The same year, the NWREB entered into a consortium with the ALSEB and three other local exam boards, forming the Northern Examining Association (NEA) to offer the new General Certificate of Secondary Education qualification, which replaced the O Level and CSE from 1988.

In 1990, Tattersall moved to become leader of the oldest member of the NEA, the Joint Matriculation Board (JMB). As well as providing GCSEs through the NEA, the JMB also offered A Levels independently.[2]

The JMB merged with the other four members of the NEA – the ALSEB, the NWREB, the North Regional Examinations Board and Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Examinations Board – in 1992, creating the Northern Examinations and Assessment Board (NEAB). The merged organised appointed Tattersall as its chief executive.[2] While Tattersall led NEAB, it grew to be the biggest provider of GCSEs across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

By the late 1990s, Government policy was to reduce the number of exam boards in the UK, replacing them with larger awarding bodies offering vocational, as well as academic, qualifications. Thus, in 1997, Tattersall led NEAB into a federation with AEB/SEG (an academic exam board) and City & Guilds (a vocational qualifications provider) called the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA).[4] AQA, the UK's largest awarding body, appointed Tattersall as its first director general in 1998. She continued this role when NEAB and AEB/SEG (but not City & Guilds) formally merged under the AQA name in 2000.[2]

During her time at AQA, Tattersall was also chair of the Joint Council for General Qualifications, an umbrella group representing all British exam boards. In this role, Tattersall sought to ensure that examiners' professional judgements, rather than statistics, were used to award grades when revised A Level exams were introduced in 2002.[5][6]

Tattersall retired from AQA in 2003, the same year she was awarded an OBE for services to education. She soon came out of retirement, however, to become chair of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors, a professional body for examiners, in 2005.[2]

Chief regulator

In 2008, Tattersall was appointed the inaugural chair and chief regulator of Ofqual, the new exams 'watchdog'.[7][8] Initially, Ofqual operated as part of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in London, but moved to Coventry and became a non-ministerial government department in 2010, still led by Tattersall.[2]

At Ofqual, Tattersall was open about the difficulties of comparing exam results over time and urged better communication between exams authorities and the general public.[9]

Tattersall resigned from Ofqual with immediate effect in July 2010, two months after the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government came to power. In her resignation letter, Tattersall stated it was 'clear that the Government is bringing a fresh perspective to public policy, in education as in other areas' and it was 'in the best interests both of Government and of the education sector for Ofqual to have a new chair'.[10]

Later life

Tattersall was critical of exam reforms under Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove in the early 2010s. In response to Gove's later-aborted plans to scrap GCSEs and replace them with a new qualification only accessible to higher ability students, she said:[11]

No one who is responsible for the education of young people should be proud to introduce a system which will result in a greater number of students leaving school with no qualifications. Education is about encouraging success and the raising of aspirations, not the writing off of a generation, which is what this new, untried, untested policy, based on prejudice and untruths, will bring about.

In November 2012, Tattersall became president of the Association for Educational Assessment–Europe.[2]

Tattersall died of stomach cancer in Aughton, Lancashire on 23 January 2013, aged 70. She was survived by her partner, Geraldine Boocock.[8][12][13]

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References
  1. Bradford, Michael. "Tattersall, Kathleen (1942–2013), Educationist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. OUP. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-106145. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  2. Baird, Jo-Anne. "Kathleen Tattersall Obituary". Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  3. Tattersall, Kathleen (June 2008). "The Relationship of Examination Boards with Schools and Colleges: A Historical Perspective" (PDF). Cambridge Assessment. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  4. Tattersall, Kathleen (2003). "Ringing the Changes: Educational and Assessment Policies, 1900 to the Present". Setting the Standard: A Century of Public Examining by AQA and Its Parent Boards. Manchester: AQA. p. 22. ISBN 0954470508.
  5. BBC (31 October 2002). "Timeline: A-level Grading Row". BBC News. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  6. Bright, Martin; McVeigh, Tracy (21 September 2002). "How the A-level Scandal Caught Fire". The Observer. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  7. "Kathleen Tattersall, Chair, Ofqual". CYP Now. 15 April 2008. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  8. Bloom, Adi (8 February 2013). "Obituary - Kathleen Tattersall, 1942-2013". TES. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  9. Kershaw, Alison (13 July 2009). "Exam Changes 'Make It Harder to Maintain Standards'". The Independent. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  10. "Exam Regulator Ofqual Chief Kathleen Tattersall Steps Down". Evening Standard. 2 July 2010. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  11. Tattersall, Kathleen (18 September 2012). "Letters: An Exam That Will Define Failure, Not Success". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  12. "University honours the late Kathleen Tattersall". www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk. University of Manchester. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  13. "Kathleen Tattersall Obituary". oucea.education.ox.ac.uk. OUCEA. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
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